Leica SL3-P Lab Test – Rolling Shutter, Dynamic Range, and Exposure Latitude

Lab Test

by Gunther MachuJune 25^th, 2026

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The new Leica SL3-P has arrived in our CineD headquarters, and we couldn’t resist running it through our standardized lab test. Curious to see the results? Then read on …

Well, on paper, the specs like sensor resolution and video modes of this new Leica camera look quite similar to the recently tested Panasonic LUMIX S1RII (lab test here). But let’s have a detailed look!

Again, a big thank you goes to my fellow authors, Florian Milz and Marcel Klien, who helped to shoot and analyze this test.

Rolling Shutter of the Leica SL3-P

As usual, we use our 300Hz strobe light and count the sequence of black and white bars, a result of the read-out nature of rolling shutter sensors.

Similar to the Panasonic LUMIX S1RII, the Leica SL3-P also features a “Dynamic Range Expansion” (DRE) mode up to 29.97 frames per second, which can be switched “ON” or “OFF” in the menu and affects the rolling shutter. Looking at 8K25p with DRE “ON”, we get 31.9ms (less is better):

This is a very, very bad result. Switching the DRE to “OFF”, we still get 23.9ms, which is better, but not good either.

Moving to the 3:2 open gate mode, with DRE “ON”, we get 37.5ms (28.3ms with DRE “OFF”).

If you aim for lower rolling shutter values while retaining higher resolutions, you could shift to the C6K mode (5760×3040) and use a frame rate between 47.95 and 59.94fps (DRE not available), and here you have a reasonable 15.5ms (with a slight 1.04x crop).

Dynamic Range of the Leica SL3-P

If you are not aware of how we test dynamic range, please head over here first.

The Leica SL3-P has four native ISOs: ISO 400 and 1600 with DRE “ON”, and 200 and 800 with DRE “OFF”. Shooting our Xyla21 chart in 8K (7680×4320) at ISO400 with DRE “ON”, we get the following waveform:

Around 12 stops can be identified above the noise floor, with a hint of a 13th and maybe a 14th.

IMATEST confirms this, we get 11.7 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 13 stops at SNR = 1:

This is an OK-ish result, putting the Leica SL3-P in the middle territory of consumer full-frame cameras. Quite strangely, at the second native ISO (1600) with DRE “ON”, we get a higher result of 12.6 / 13.8 stops at SNR = 2 / 1 – that is almost 1 stop more! The same happens for DRE “OFF”.

We have never seen that with any other dual-native ISO camera, and it is probably due to more in-camera noise reduction. In addition, as already exhibited by the Panasonic S1RII, the DRE mode “ON” doesn’t yield much more dynamic range (only about 0.2 stops). Please refer to the table below or our databases for all the results in 8K. We also looked at some intermediate ISO’s and at least could confirm the highest values at the mentioned native ISO’s:

Exposure Latitude of the Leica SL3-P

As stated in previous articles, the exposure latitude is a camera’s ability to retain detail and color when over- or underexposed and then pushed back to a base exposure. This test is very revealing, as it pushes the complete image pipeline of any camera to its absolute limits, not just in the highlights but mainly in the shadows. And typically, it’s in the shadows where the image pipeline and codecs reveal their flaws.

As usual, we are testing in the highest bit depth/resolution combination in full frame, and here the Leica SL3-P doesn’t offer many choices other than a compressed Long GOP 4:2:0 10-bit H.265 8K mode with the DRE “ON”, not an internal 12-bit RAW mode like the LUMIX S1RII (but also this mode has a 1.31x crop, not full frame). The Leica also offers downsampled 4K 10bit 4:2:2 modes. In any case, pulling shadows in 10-bit could yield problematic color noise issues. But let’s see!

Our studio base exposure is (arbitrarily) set to an (ungraded) luma value of 60% on the forehead of our subject on the waveform monitor. In this case, my colleague Nino:

From here, we can overexpose 4 stops until the forehead of Nino is at the cusp of clipping the red channel:

And now, we start to underexpose by closing down the iris of our standard compact prime 85mm T1.5 lens in one-stop increments until T8, and then the shutter angle is halved.

At 3 stops underexposure (7 stops of exposure latitude), pushed back to base, we get the first signs of increased noise, but more importantly, the shadows start to show a pinkish tint:

This pinkish tint becomes more pronounced at 4stops underexposure, pushed back to base:

At 5 stops under, 9 stops of exposure latitude, we get a very pronounced pinkish shadow noise, which cannot be easily removed in post-production:

Here is the noise-reduced one:

Overall, it still looks sort of OK, there are faint horizontal stripes but no other significant artifacts, but the pink tint is annoying. But judge for yourself.

At 6 stops under, pushed back, it is definitely “game over”:

That leads me to the conclusion that we have a slightly borderline 9 stops of exposure latitude – which is a good result for a consumer full-frame camera!

The Panasonic LUMIX S1RII, for comparison, scored similarly, but if you look at the lab test (here), you can clearly see that the image pipeline handles color issues and noise much better, as the 6-stop underexposed image still looked somewhat OK.

Summary

The Leica SL3-P shows an interesting mix of results in our lab test. All in all, the results are close to the Panasonic LUMIX S1RII, but we have to mention that the SL3-P is more expensive and lacks video features in comparison, mainly the internal ProRes RAW mode. Rolling shutter values are really bad for the year 2026 when using the highest quality settings (with DRE “ON”). But there is not much penalty to the dynamic range if DRE “OFF” is used, and for example, shooting C6K 47.95 – 59.94p full frame with 15.5ms rolling shutter is in a very usable range.

Dynamic range results with IMATEST show good results, plus or minus 12 stops at SNR = 2, even without using DRE, and the exposure latitude reveals (a slightly borderline) 9 usable stops, which is on the upper end for consumer full-frame cameras. All in all, the SL3-P is a very capable all-rounder – high-res still photography, solid videography with frame rates up to 4K120p in full frame.

Are you interested in shooting with the Leica SL3-P? Why would you choose it over other offerings on the market? Let us know in the comments below.