The 6-Year Old Leica SL2s Got a Firmware Update

In 2020, Leica launched the Leica SL2s and we published our review. Around one year later, I bought one along with a 28mm f2 SL APO lens. Since then, the camera has been replaced in the Leica lineup by the Leica SL3s. But just last week, the Leica SL2s, a now 6 year old camera, got a firmware update around usability. It only adds to what I’ve said for a long time: if you buy a Leica camera, you’ll pay a lot of money for a very long service life. In contrast, I haven’t seen many other brands do this. Considering that I own the Leica SL2s, I figured that I’d update our review.

The following text is the new text that will appear in our Leica SL2s review. You can read the entire review here at this link.

Leica SL2s Review Update August 2026

Earlier, I’d written about whether the Leica SL2s is worth is still in 2026. And today as I’m writing this update on August 7th, know this: I’m very shocked that the company still stood by this product.

Firmware 6.3.0 came for the Leica SL2s very recently; and so I updated it via the Leica Fotos app. Yes, the company gave a firmware update to a six-year-old camera. Beat that, Sony. How about that, Canon? Will you do that, Nikon? The only brands known to do stuff like that have been Fujifilm and sometimes I believe Panasonic LUMIX. The SL2s came out in 2020 during the pandemic when I first reviewed it. Later on I purchased the camera and it continues to be one of my main bodies. Despite the fact that so many cameras pass through my paws due to my being a reviewer, I feel like I’m coming back home every time I use the SL2s.

Here’s a summary of the new firmware update according to what Leica describes:

EXTENDED FUNCTIONALITY

• The new M lens (Noctilux-M 35 f/1.2 ASPH.) is supported.

IMPROVEMENT

• Leica SL2-S: Improved visibility of focus peaking in magnified view during manual focusing in video mode.
• An issue has been resolved where, under certain conditions, the battery could drain while the Bluetooth/Remote Wake-up function was enabled, even though the camera was turned off.
• An issue with vignetting correction when using the Noctilux-M 50 f/1.2 ASPH.that could lead to overcompensation has been resolved.
• An issue where manual focus might not be available in video mode with certain L-mount lenses has been resolved.
• An issue has been resolved that could cause image artifacts at the bottom edge of DNG files when using Adobe Camera Raw AI Denoise.
• An issue with the accuracy of the T-stop display in Cine mode with certain L-mount Cine lenses has been resolved

With this in mind, I was really perplexed. I’ve probably only ever used this camera to shoot video once. Out of college, stills paid the bills — but I was always mostly a video shooter.

So I decided to see if anything in the firmware update also affected the stills performance. I then began to test focus peaking in magnifying mode: it works, but it only really works well enough when really, really, really magnified in stills mode. With this in mind, I really do wonder why Leica didn’t make this announced feature available for both stills and video. To double-check that this is the case, I decided to switch the camera to video mode, and the focus peaking performance is indeed slightly better. After that I quickly switched it back to photo mode and went to offer penance to Cartier-Bresson. He forgave me for my sin of considering shooting video with a camera primarily meant for stills and reminded me that I should continue to note this: high end cinema cameras don’t shoot still photographs. Just look at Black Magic, for example.

I mean, Leica is a company that makes products primarily for still shooters – not cinema shooters. At least, this feature should’ve probably been given to the SL3s instead of the SL2s. Without checking the SL3s firmware update, I’m still pretty sure that was the case.

So how is the focus peaking performance? Luckily, I’ve got a ton of L-mount lenses in-house. And because I’m an ethical journalist, I’ll also state my declarations here.

Sirui 85mm f1.4 Aurora: Peaking is pretty sedated wide open. This lens is on loan to us.

Sirui 35mm f1.4 Aurora: Peaking is also sedated wide open. This lens is on loan to us.

Thypoch 50mm f2: Peaking is pretty apparent wide open. The brand sent this lens for review and never asked for it back.

Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 Art V1: Peaking is better at 70mm and at f2.8. I bought this lens.

TTArtisan 40mm f2: Doesn’t lock into the mount with a sensor shield from Kolari Vision. So I didn’t test it. It also feels kind of weird to mount such a cheap lens onto a Leica camera. I totally bought this lens.

Viltrox 16mm f1.8: Peaking is better than what I’m getting from Sirui. But this is also a very wide-angle lens. Viltrox sent us this lens and never asked for it back.

Leica 28mm f2 SL APO: Arguably some of the best focus peaking performance. Far better than Sirui and on par with the manual focus Thypoch and Sigma. They’re all tied at 2nd place here. I absolutely bought this lens.

Lumix 50mm f1.8: By far, the best peaking of all the lenses used. I bought this lens.

In addition to all this, the problems that I’ve seen, tested and reported on previously around the editing not always being available in Leica Fotos to apply Leica Looks seems to now be fixed. It’s strictly locked to only editing DNG images. Truthfully, I’m perfectly fine with that.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that the Leica SL2s got a firmware update, but I would’ve liked even better focus peaking for stills. I don’t necessarily need all the AI autofocus improvements because I think we should be using far less AI in cameras. But this is a nice touch for sure.

There are only two things left: I still wish Leica did multiple exposures in-camera. They’ve got the tech to do it. This, and an auto-white balance warm feature that I believe they could very easily implement.

It’s because of little surprises like this new firmware update that I’m still a Leica customer and it’s also part of why I love the L-mount alliance so much. Sure, Sony has a ton of third-party lens options. But Sony also only approves of only a few brands. In contrast, the L-mount alliance is far easier to work with and it shows in how many brands have signed on. I’m very glad that a past version of myself bought into it.