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Verdict
The Leica TL2 is certainly not without its charms. For a start, it's a beautifully made camera, and the fact that it's crafted from a single piece of aluminium underlines the premium feel Leica is aiming for.
The large and bright touchscreen is great, while the interface Leica has developed for it is one of the best we've used on a camera. Not everyone will be happy the absence of the TL2's body-mounted controls, but the combination of the dual dials on the top plate and the screen works well in most scenarios. That said, the TL2 would benefit from just a couple more body-mounted function buttons to speed up operation when shooting.
Images from the 24.3MP APS-C sensor are very good (provided you shoot in raw), with plenty of detail, good noise performance and good dynamic range. It's a shame the TL2 no longer comes bundled with a copy of Lightroom like the T and TL, but the universal .DNG raw format it shoots in means you'll be able to open the files in any software that can read DNGs.
However, for the price, the Leica TL2 just doesn't quite cut it. The autofocus is more than adequate, but that's all it is – it just doesn't offer the sophistication that rivals at this price offer. And that's possibly the biggest hurdle the TL2 faces – it just doesn't offer the wealth of features we'd hope to see on a camera demanding this kind of money. With no built-in electronic viewfinder, no image stabilization for still photography, and no vari-angle display, it just doesn't measure up compared to rivals.
Competition
