Leica Sofort 2 Review

When I think of Leica I think of the iconic M. A camera that feels inevitable, carved from a solid block of metal by the finest craftspeople in Wetzlar, Germany. I think this is the way that a lot of people think about the brand, but look at their history and you’ll see that they’ve enjoyed a long history of collaboration with other brands to produce cameras of all shapes and sizes that while still Leicas, borrow heavily from cameras made by partners like Panasonic, Minolta and Fujifilm.

The Sofort 2 is one such collaboration, Leica’s second forray into instant photography following the original Sofort camera from 2016. That fully analogue camera was my first Leica, a present from my wife for my birthday, gifted with a leather case and the joke that it would be the only Leica I’d ever own. Little did she know …

Sofort 2 was announced and released in late 2023 and as luck would have it I was going to be on a work trip to LA on its day of release, and the store agreed to hold one for me.

It’s sometimes described as a hybrid camera, but I don’t know if that’s strictly the case. A true digital/film hybrid might be something more like the Leica R9 with DMR add-on that converts the camera from producing images on 35mm film to one that makes digital images. This camera by contrast is unapologetically digital. Built for the Instagram age with a host of filters and photographic styles accessed using dials on the top and front, easily reset using a thoughtful button on the top, and producing a credit card sized physical print of an image only when you crank the satisfyingly clicky lever on the back. There are two shutter buttons and a small mirror on the front making selfies very easy, but if there’s a party trick to the Sofort 2 it’s the lever on the back. The lever is wonderful. It makes everyone I show the camera to want one and provides a wonderful tactile experience that makes printing a joy.

When paired with the Leica Fotos app on your phone you can also use the camera like a printer, making prints of any image stored on your phone. I think this makes it the most versatile camera in Leica’s lineup, can your SL3 or my M11 print a picture? Didn’t think so. And this camera is less than four hundred bucks! The best value, most capable Leica!

The prints are a wonderfully sharable way into instant film photography, affordable at less than £1 per picture, in the UK you can still walk into some highstreet stores and pick up film with the additional bonus that digital nature of the camera means the fun doesn’t stop when you run out of film. The camera has a micro SD card slot, and it’s worth knowing that the only way to get images from the camera is by copying them off a card that you’ll need to have in addition to the camera, or by printing them. There’s internal storage to get you started so you don’t need the card, but this can’t be accessed by plugging the camera in, the USB C port is only good for charging, so a cheap Micro SD of a couple of GB will be plenty for hundreds of images and plenty fast enough. That’s because the Sofort 2 is only a 5 megapixel camera and only shoots jpegs. Even the digicam crowd are likely to want something with a larger sensor if not higher resolution, and the ability to shoot RAW images. The jpegs made by the Sofort 2 can be disappointing in all but the best lighting conditions, but to pixel peep is to miss the point. Take this camera with you on holiday or to a party and it sings. This is a camera designed to keep you in the moment, to get you out of your own head and stop you thinking about tech specs and quality and instead think about sharing and connection. While part of me wonders a 1” type sensor similar to an X-Half or RX100 might be like in this sort of camera, I have had a blast using it exactly as it is.

Treat yourself to an afternoon out with friends or family and nothing but Sofort 2 and you’ll realise what I mean.

Chances are that at the end you’ll be rewarded with time sat sharing images, smiling and creating prints. If you rarely print or never shoot with a more basic camera, a creative tool like this can be a delight, geting you making and creating in a different way as well as possibly infecting those around you with some of our obsession with photography.

If you’ve shot for a long time and sometimes feel stuck in a rut, pick this little camera up, in white because that’s the best colour, and delight in this gateway drug to physical, tactile photography. You won’t regret it.

Iain Farrell is a photographic tourist and host of the Prime Lenses podcast, a weekly show about image making and creativity. He loves cameras with red dots on them. 

Share this post: