Category Archives: Leica

All about the wonderful cameras from Wetzlar.

Tethering the Leica SL2-S to Lightroom Classic

Leica, Lightroom

Easy, but ….

Tethering means connecting your camera to a computer running Lightroom Classic. When the picture is taken the image pops up in LRc for editing, emailing, etc.

BUT, while a Nikon D800, say, will tether nicely with version 6 of old (non-subscription) Lightroom running on older Intel CPU Macs, the Leica SL2-S firmware dictates that the Mac must be running an Apple Silicon CPU (M1, M2, M4, etc.) and the Lightroom version must be 15.0 or later. Don’t bother trying with the pre-subscription versions. I have. No go. Also make sure you have the latest firmware installed in the SL2-S. These steps ensure that you need no external software kludges for everything to work. I use a 15 foot cable and have had no issues.

Connect the camera to the Mac using a USB-C to USB-C cable. Any cheap cable will do. Don’t fall for the costly orange ones at 6x the price.


USB-C connection on the Leica SL2-S.

Open Lightroom, and go to File->Tethered Capture->Start Tethered Capture, thus:


Starting tethered capture.

Hit Return and you are ready to start:


Tethered capture session started.

I use an inexpensive Mac Mini M1 bought used for half the price of the latest version with just 8gB of memory, and it works very well. RAW images pop up in LRc in 2 seconds allowing your client to view results and choose the preferred snap in real time. That Mac Mini is networked with the M4 Mini in my office, so after concluding a session, I export the LRc catalog across the network to the M4 for further processing, after import to the regular LRc catalog.

Note: The LRc license permits installation of the application on two computers. I have no issues running both simultaneously.

Pomegranate

Cooking, Leica, Macro

Seasonal charmer.




Click the image for a larger version.

September through December is the harvest season for pomegranates in the Western hemisphere. It’s a sectional fruit comprised of 6 sections. You can feel the ridges in the skin. Cut through the skin along those six ridges top to base, then split in a large bowl of water. Push out the seeds – the good stuff – and they will fall to the bottom whereas any pith will float. Scoop out the pith, drain and eat the seeds for a super healthy snack. The flavor is both sweet and bitter, so pair it with some home made pumpkin pie and whipped cream with confectioner’s caster sugar. There go the health benefits!

Leica SL2-S, 135mm El Nikkor at f/11, 3 strobes, ISO100. 31 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.

Old Time Farm Day

Leica, Lenses, Photographs

A celebration of times past.

The local community presents Old Time Farm Day annually and it’s fun for all ages. The primary goal is to show how life on the farm was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This was a fine opportunity to give the 20-200mm Sigma Contemporary lens a field test, mounted on the Leica SL2-S. The overcast day dictated a touch on the contrast slider in LRc. Otherwise these snaps are pretty much straight out of camera. Most of the images were snapped at full aperture with focal lengths across the very broad range available. The lens does not disappoint.



The entrance.


Peek-a-boo.


Side saddle horse.


In memoriam.


Cold War radio.


Military instructor.


Revolutionary War patriot.


Horse love.


Blacksmith.


Goat feeding


Climbing Jacob’s Ladder. Not easy.


Jacob’s ladder instructor.


Old time saddle.


Cream separator.


Harnesses and buggy.


Old tractor association.


International Harvester.


John Deere.


Whoopsie!


Gated shifter.


Painter.


Abundant harvest.


Keep looking.


Country and western noise maker.


Kids.


Pouring.


RV of the times.


Bed, kitchen and stove.


Rocking horse.


Broom maker. The hardwood ash handle is from Michigan
and the broom corns are all natural growth.


Horseshoes.


Lots of kids.

A wireless remote for the Leica SL2-S

Leica

Inexpensive and versatile.

For an index of all Leica-related articles click here.

Wireless remotes are useful tools whether it’s for bird photography or shake-free images in the studio when the camera is on a tripod.

With my Nikon D800 sold I was using a $12 wired remote with the Leica SL2-S in the studio for macro photography, along with the required $7 2.5mm female to 3.5mm male adapter to fit that remote to either of the two coaxial sockets under the rubber cover on the left side of the body. But I had a hankering for a wireless remote but none is listed specifically for the Leica SL series.

It struck me that the Oppilas Pixel wireless remote I used with the Nikon D700 and D800 might be easily adapted for use with the SL2-S, needing just a 2.5mm to 2.5mm coaxial cable (this replaces the one with the 2.5mm to Nikon multi-connector plug cable) along with the above mentioned 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. And, sure enough, it works perfectly.

If you do not already have one of those remotes, buy the one for the Panasonic S1 – $35 – which has a 2.5mm female socket on the body and add the 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. Add four AAA batteries, two for the trigger and two for the receiver. This is how it looks on the camera:



On the Leica SL2-S.

The device uses radio frequency waves to communicate between the trigger and the on camera receiver so line-of-sight is not required. The receiver attaches to the hot shoe of the Leica and has a locking device. In practice, in the studio I have a wireless strobe trigger connected to the hot shoe so I simply attach the receiver to the camera’s neck strap with a wire tie. The receiver is not a hot shoe device, making its sole connection with the camera through the coaxial cable.

The manufacturer claims a range of 262 feet (!). My home test with one wall between the camera and the remote showed it works fine at 60 feet after which I ran out of corridor! And I’m not sure that in the field I want to be any further away from so costly a camera.

Will this work with other models in the SL range (SL601, SL2, SL3, SL3-S, SL3-P)? I do not know as I prefer to remain solvent, having just the one SL2-S body, but as all the SL bodies appear to be fitted with 3.5mm female sockets I would guess there should be no problem.

The trigger has four positions – Single shot, Continuous, Bulb and Self timer. If you keep the button depressed in Single shot mode the camera will take an image every second. For Continuous set the drive mode on the SL2-S to Continuous and the selector on the remote likewise. As long as the remote’s button is depressed the camera will bang away at the frequency you elected. For Bulb exposures set the SL2-S to Manual exposure, the exposure time to ‘B’ and the remote to Bulb. A first press on the remote’s button opens the shutter, a second press closes it. For delayed action set the remote’s selector to the clock face and you will get a 6 second delay after pressing the button before the camera’s shutter is released – this works in either Manual or Auto exposure modes. Handy.

Bottom line? This inexpensive wireless remote ($35 + $7 for the coaxial adapter), which I have been using for over a decade, adapts well to the Leica SL2-S with no operational issues. Just be careful not to knock that protruding adapter when it is inserted in the camera’s socket. Have you checked Leica’s repair costs and turnarounds recently?