Leica's next camera is codenamed "Warp", is due to be announced next week, and is almost certainly going to be the Leica SL3-S.
That's according to a series of leaks, reports and camera rumors, all of which point to the sister model of last year's Leica SL3 being revealed imminently – and gives us confirmation that Leica's engineers are big Star Trek fans.
When I was testing a pre-production version of the SL3 at the company's headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany, I noticed that the camera was codenamed "Picard" – a fact that became apparent when I connected it to the Fotos app on my phone. Take a look for yourself:
As a Next Generation fan, that made me giddy with geeky glee. So the fact that, as reported by Leica Rumors, the upcoming camera is codenamed "Warp" made me do another little fanboy smile – but the cutesy codename also confirms rumors that this new body will likely be the Leica SL3-S.
How do we know this? Well, Leica often codenames sister models with paired monikers. For example, the Leica SL2 was called "Kerberos" and the Leica SL2-S "Charon" – two figures from Greek mythology.
While I'd personally have gone with "Riker" or "Kirk", the fact that the new camera is called "Warp" almost certainly links it to "Picard" – hence, it's pretty much guaranteed to be the Leica SL3-S.
And there are reports floating around, as collated by Mirrorless Rumors, that the SL3-S is going to be announced on January 16 – which is next Thursday.
So we know what it's called, and we know when it's coming, but what do we know about the camera itself?
Leica SL3-S specs (rumored)
Historically, Leica's SL cameras have taken their technological cues from Panasonic S bodies – the Leica SL2 was largely a rebodied Lumix S1R, for example, while the Leica SL2-S had much in common with the Lumix S1.
This year, however, Leica was first to the punch – so the SL3 was entirely its own beast (with Panasonic's next S-series camera expected to be modeled after it). There is a lot of speculation, though, that the SL3-S will be largely modeled after the unversally-acclaimed Panasonic Lumix S5 II.
Little in the way of specs have leaked for the SL3-S / Warp, though it does seem to feature a 24MP sensor – which, coincidence or not, sounds very similar to the 24.2MP sensor of the S5 II. You can also expect phase detection autofocus (albeit Leica's slightly clunkier implementation of it, rather than Panasonic's Phase Hybrid AF system) and 6K video.
With just over a week to go until that reported announcement, I expect more specs to start leaking out soon…
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