Schrodinger’s Leica – The Leica SL3 is deleting your images while you shoot

Leica has acknowledged an issue with the recently released Leica SL3 ($6,995). It seems the camera has been deleting and overwriting users’ photographs. Photographer Alex Barrera posted about the issue on YouTube a few days ago, and Leica has now responded.

The problem doesn’t seem to affect all Leica SL3 cameras. Given that they’re all supposed to be identical, this could be a settings difference or perhaps something more serious with the hardware of certain batches. But Leica seems to believe it’s just a firmware issue.

What’s the problem?

Essentially, the Leica SL3 seems to be randomly deleting and overwriting photographs you’ve shot. Files that should be safe on your memory card. Alex says this has happened to several photographers he knows who’ve gotten their hands on the SL3.

At least one photographer told Alex that this happened during the photographing of a wedding. And apparently, shooting dual card slots to SD and CFe doesn’t solve it. He says one person spoke to Leica and was told that it was a firmware issue.

It’s quite an unfortunate bug to have. It’s essentially Schrodinger’s Leica at this point. All of your previous photos are simultaneously still there and also not there until you actually hit the playback button and see what’s still left on your memory card.

As of this moment, today, I can no longer recommend anyone to buy the Leica SL3.

And if you’re using the Leica SL3 professionally, I cannot recommend you continue to use it. As a matter of fact, I don’t know that I can recommend anybody continue using it because of this bug.

Alex Barrera

Alex says that Leica has told one of these people that they are aware of the issue and that it’s a firmware bug. So, this means it should be fixable. But now, Leica have made a public statement themselves.

Leica makes an official response

Leica has quickly acknowledged the issue with the Leica SL that users have been experiencing. The company has issued a statement via the Leica forum.

Unfortunately, with the current firmware of the Leica SL3, there have been isolated cases of camera malfunctions that can lead to previously saved images being overwritten unnoticed.

As the error can occur if the camera has not been switched off properly (e.g. when changing the battery in standby mode or after a crash of the camera software), we strongly recommend careful handling of the camera in accordance with the user manual. In such case we recommend that you save the images immediately to an external device and change the memory card before you start the camera again. Please ensure that you always switch off the Leica SL 3 completely before changing the battery in order to minimize the risk of data loss.

We are concentrating with the highest priority on restoring the perfect functionality and usual reliability of your Leica SL3 as quickly as possible. To this end, we are working at full speed with our development team to provide you with a firmware update.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Leica statement via Leica Forum

Leica suggests that these are minor issues with the Leica SL3. They seem to believe it’s a firmware issue, and they say they’re working on it as quickly as possible. But as of right now, there are no potential release dates for a fix.

That’s going to be a hard pill to swallow, especially for those who spent $7K on a camera (or $14K, gotta have a backup, right?) to actually earn money with. Even Leica SL3 users who haven’t yet faced this issue don’t know if or when it might pop up during a real shoot.

That makes them essentially useless unless you plan to swap memory cards out after each individual photo.

Hopefully, it won’t take too long for Leica to issue a new firmware fix for the SL3 to eliminate this bug. Just don’t expect content authenticity.

Update: 19th July, 2024 – Leica has now released a fixed firmware for the Leica SL3 to resolve this issue. You can download firmware version 1.1.9 from the Leica website.

[via Leica Rumors]