I purchased the Leica 28mm f2 APO SL lens a long time ago. And for the past few years, it has been my most used lens. The special image quality of an apochromatic lens is really something to behold. Plus, there’s the solid build quality it offers too. And recently, the brand offered a firmware update to the lens to make it even better. So we’ve updated our Leica 28mm f2 APO SL lens review.
Below is the updated text from our Leica 28mm f2 SL Apochromatic lens review. To see the full thing, please click here. Want one? They’ll run you around $5,000.
Autofocus Update March 2024
The Leica 28mm f2 SL APO received a firmware update around the end of 2023/the start of 2024 that boosted its autofocus performance speed. In fact, it shocked us. On both the Leica SL3 and the Leica SL2s, the autofocus is now incredible, and we’d say that it can hold its own with Canon, Nikon, and Sony.
For street photography, the lens is best used with the multi-point autofocus settings and in AF-C mode. It will be able to track a subject throughout the scene and get them in focus pretty easily. In fact, we were very shocked to see how well it performed. It’s so nice that I don’t need to necessarily zone focus to get good autofocus performance from this lens when shooting street photography. Leica has surely come a long way here.
To be fair, the lens was already good. But it got even better.
Will the focus always be perfect? No. However, it’s more than good enough. But in low light, the lens and the Leica SL3 do a better job than Sony and Canon. Only Nikon is even better for tracking people of color in low light.