A reader (thanks @aljawad) sent me two photos demonstrating the dynamic range of the new 60MP sensor inside the Leica SL3 camera:
“I picked up my Leica SL3 from the Dubai Leica store last week, and for the past few days I used it with the Vario-Elmar 100-400mm for some bird photography (some of the results are on my IG @aljawad).
This evening I changed to the APO-ASPH 35mm Summicron lens and performed my usual low light test. First I set the ISO to 50 and the camera to aperture priority (at f/2) + auto white balance, and the camera set the shutter speed to 2 seconds. Next, I switched to the manual mode and underexposed the image by 5 stops to a shutter speed of 1/15 second. Using Lightroom the exposure of the underexposed image was boosted by a factor of +5.
Here are the images: the first one is the 2-sec exposure followed by the 1/15 second “dark” exposure and finally the boosted underexposed image. Other than the exposure boost and the DNG to JPEG export, no other manipulations were made.”
First test picture (normal exposure):
Second picture (underexposed):
The same underexposed picture from above edited in Lightroom (exposure +5):
From Reddotforum:
“60 Megapixel BSI CMOS Sensor: Headlining the changes, the Leica SL3 is now packing the same cutting-edge 60 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor we’ve seen on the M11 and Q3. With an ISO range of 50-100,000 and an amazing 15-stops of dynamic range, this chip delivers next-level image quality. Just like on the M11, expect a bump in low light performance along with the increased resolution. This is made possible by utilizing BSI technology.”
Here are a couple of details from the original two images images. In each of the following pairs the first crop is from the camera-exposed 2-second image, while the second crop is from the manual 5-stop underexposed image:
