Archiver
Veteran
Yes. One of my two go-to places, along with Camera Lane.
Out to Lunch
Ventor
You'll love it. It took me some time to assign the unmarked buttons and wheels, and I learned that I like the results best in M mode with the histogram in the VF. Cheers, OtL.
Mute-on
Well-known
I inspected that very SL2-S. From what I recall the sensor could do with a bit of a clean. Regardless, I just couldn’t get excited about an SL over a M. I’m sure I’ll live to regret it .
Great purchase. Congratulations!
Enjoy
Archiver
Veteran
Camex ran out of cleaning fluid the very day that I bought the camera, but they cleaned off the dust, and will clean the sensor when I return. They are very patient with me! I breeze in, ask to look at something and spend half an hour walking around the shop to test it. Or they unlock the Minolta cabinet for me and I try every lens until I find one that catches my eye. 😅
So far, I feel the SL experience is very different from the M, and while I'm using it as a M alternative, it has many advantages that make it very suited to my style and working environments. I'm often in dark places where the rangefinder patch isn't as helpful, and the low ISO range of the M9 sensor tops out very quickly. Since it lacks a tilting screen, I'm using it as a viewfinder-only camera, like the M system. Autofocus with the Summicron 35 SL is really good, even in dark situations, which is another bonus.
The only issues I have are with the EVF waking up in Extended mode - to save power, both screen and EVF remain off until you raise the camera to your eye, and the tiny lag before it switches on is a bit jarring. The other two issues are the placement of the power button, and the crappy battery life. Every other camera I have can be turned on quickly with the shooting hand, but the power button on the left means that I have to use my left hand to do it. Battery life sucks so far, but I'm going to do what the manual says and drain the battery completely a few times and see if it improves.
Manual focus with the SL2S is quite unlike the rangefinder - I'm very practiced with hitting critical focus with my M9 quickly, but waiting for the image to be at its sharpest is taking some practice. The magnification helps a lot, though. Experiments continue!