LEICA SOFORT 2
The second generation instant camera
A review of the LEICA SOFORT 2 and some sample photos.
Table of contents
Gallery
Review
1．Overview
SOFORT 2 is a digital camera with instant printing function that uses Instax film, released by Leica on November 10, 2023.
The body is available in three colors: black, white, and red. The camera is an OEM of Fujifilm’s “instax mini Evo”.
Fujifilm’s “instax mini” and Leica’s genuine “Leica Instant Color Film” can be used for film. Fujifilm is cheaper in price.
The battery is built-in, and it is charged by opening the plastic cover on the bottom of the body and connecting it to a USB-C charger used for mobile phones with a cable. We have written about problems with the usability of this cover.
The lens is “LEICA SUMMAR f2/2.4”.
2．Usage
The camera part is a digital camera with a very small sensor.
When you look at the results of SOFORT 2’s photography on a monitor, even though it is designed for printing with a Polaroid camera, there is flashy noise, the edges are distorted, and the results are overexposed and overexposed, making you wonder how old the image quality is for a digital camera. This is a problem that arises from the fact that the images can be viewed on a PC rather than directly printed.
To be honest, as a digital camera, it doesn’t feel worth 60,000 yen.
Although this is a reasonable measure for the positioning of this camera, the flash and white balance settings are set to auto by default, and users can change them if they are not satisfied.
The operation of changing the settings is not very well thought out, and the two dials on the camera are assigned to image effects. It would be convenient if the dials could be assigned to exposure compensation and ISO sensitivity compensation, but as of December 2024, this does not seem to be possible.
If it becomes possible to assign any function to these two dials with a firmware update, it will improve the convenience of the digital camera.
Among them, exposure compensation is the first function I want to assign to the dial, and the SOFORT 2’s automatic exposure has a large exposure metering range, so if you aim at a bright subject, the whole image becomes too dark, and if you aim at a dark subject, the whole image becomes too bright, so it is difficult to shift the metering target and make subtle adjustments to the exposure. For this reason, I use exposure compensation, but the settings are surprisingly troublesome.
SOFORT2の撮影設定の変更は2つのボタンを使う。
- Menu displayed by pressing the down button on the directional pad
- White balance
- Macro mode
- Flash on/off
- Timer
- Exposure change
- Menu displayed by pressing the MENU button
- AF assist light
- Face recognition
- Print mode
- Other
It’s my fault for not reading the manual, but I had some trouble figuring out how to change the white balance, macro, flash, timer, and exposure compensation settings by pressing down on the D-pad.
Also, there doesn’t seem to be a menu to change the ISO sensitivity, which is one of the settings that photographers can change at will.
One thing that makes the camera look cheap is that the USB-C charging port and the Micro-SD card slot cover are made of plastic, and if you keep taking pictures and importing them to a PC in the same way as you would with a digital camera, I expect this plastic cover to deteriorate and tear off.
I try not to touch this cover except when charging, so I looked for a function to transfer captured images to a smartphone via Bluetooth, and found that only printed photos can be transferred to a smartphone via the LEICA FOTOS smartphone app. I hope that an update to LEICA FOTOS will make it possible to transfer all images to a smartphone.
When you take a picture, a CSV file containing information about the image is created in the same folder as the image. The only things recorded are the camera name, date, film effects, and lens effect application conditions. Everything other than the effect application conditions can be seen by looking at the file itself, so there is not much point in doing so.
The rechargeable battery is built-in and cannot be replaced without disassembly, so after a few years, there will likely be degraded batteries and products with the bottom cover removed on the second-hand market. If you are satisfied with it, you may be happier getting rid of it sooner.
Firmware 1.0.1 has been released due to changes to Bluetooth specifications.
3．Add info.
In terms of the quality of the images, the previous SOFORT, an OEM of the Fujifilm Instax Mini, seems to have more character. The previous SOFORT only allowed printing with Instax film, so the prints were a one-off, and there was little room for discussion of image quality. The SOFORT 2 is thought to have been made digital to address the issue of bulky film stands, but the ability to check images on a PC makes it easy to find flaws.
The lens is a “LEICA SUMMAR f2/2.4”, and even though it is F2, it is listed as SUMMAR without the SUMMICRON name. This seems to be a measure to avoid selling the Summicron brand cheap, but I’m not sure why they brought the Summar brand here.
It would be forgivable if they had done it that way, but looking at the results, it seems to have been made with low-cost lenses and poor image quality tuning.
Bad reputations spread quickly, so this camera, which has a list price of about 60,000 yen, is no longer selling new, and people who have already bought it have given up and sold it, leaving the market overflowing with used ones. This is the current situation in 2024. It’s sad to think about the partial shortage immediately after its release in 2023.
And as for the images, there are many effects available, so it may be assumed that you will adjust them to match the atmosphere, but since the quality of the original images is low, you won’t get very good results even if you overdecorate with bad materials.
Also, the previous SOFORT had a separate rechargeable battery, and although it is unclear how long replacement batteries will be available for, this is preferable because it allows for more flexibility in dealing with battery life than a fixed rechargeable battery type.
Specification
| Items | SOFORT | SOFORT2 |
| Number of pixels | – | 4.9 megapixels 2560 x 1920 |
| Sensor type | – | CMOS |
| Sensor size | – | 1/5 |
| Lens | AUTOMATIK-HEKTOR 60mm | SUMMAR |
| Focal length | 60mm | 2.4mm |
| 35 mm equivalent focal length | 34mm | 28 mm |
| Aperture | 12.7 | 2 |
| 3 Focus Steps: 0,3 – 0,6 m (Macro) 0,6 – 3 m (close range) 3 m – infinity (far range) | 0.1m～∞ AFs control | |
| Shutter speeds | 1/8 – 1/400 sec. (Mechanical shutter) | 1/4 to 1/8000 sec. (Auto exposure control) |
| OVF | Target spot Macro mode parallax correction Optical real image finder 0.37x magnification | – |
| Rear LCD | – | 3.0-inch TFT LCD monitor |
| Rear LCD resolution | – | Number of pixels: 460,000 dots |
| Battery | BP-DC17 3.7V, 740mAh, 2.6 Wh | Include 3.7V, 740mAh, 2.6 Wh |
| Recorded media | – | Micro SDXC |
| Size W x H x D | 124 x 94 x 58 | 123 x 87 x 44 |
| Weight(g) (with memory card,battery) | 305 | 320 |
| Release date | 2016.11 | 2023.11.10 |
| Color | Mint Orange White Red Black Other limited edition | Black White Red |
Reference links
Update history
- 2024.12.28
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