Content Credentials arrives in the SL3-S camera, Leica’s most versatile full-frame system

As a kid, Nico Köhler was an avid Lego Technic builder, which involved gear wheels and axles. While most kids were using their Technic sets to assemble toy vehicles, Köhler was using it to devise a machine to open his bedroom door and curtains with a switch.

“My mom hated it because she always broke something when she opened the door or the curtains,” he recalled during a recent conversation.

His passion inspired him to pursue studies in engineering and management. Midway through his PhD and while working in the automotive industry, he came to a realization—his true interest wasn’t in building cars and hardware products. He wanted to create innovative products and solutions with exceptional user experience. 

“I wanted to build real products for real people, get feedback, and make them better,” he said. As Leica Camera AG’s head of product experience, he’s been leading the charge from the company’s headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany to innovate while helping maintain the Leica DNA and storied legacy in image-making. These efforts include deep involvement in the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI). 

In October 2023, Leica launched the world’s first camera with Content Credentials built-in, creating a chain of authenticity from camera to cloud. Each image created using the M11-P camera receives a digital signature, part of its attached Content Credentials that can be easily viewed from the asset when the publisher or platform supports the technology. When integrated, a CR icon appears when a viewer hovers over the image signaling presence of more context. Content Credentials may also be verified by visiting an inspect tool or the Leica FOTOS app, which acts like a reader for the standard. 

The Content Credentials standard by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) has reached adoption momentum with the likes of LinkedIn, YouTube, Adobe, Microsoft and many others implementing the open standard. 

Today marks a milestone for Köhler and the team. The newest version of the Leica SL3-S includes Content Credentials technology, the first full-frame, mirrorless camera with authenticity built-in and available for purchase. 

Leica’s impact in photography and photojournalism cannot be understated. Leica cameras have played a pivotal role in documenting key moments in world history, an indispensable tool for photojournalists who bore witness to conflict and resilience–from the Spanish Civil War to the World Wars, and beyond.

Köhler and I spoke about the gravity and importance of maintaining authenticity and trust in photographic imagery in the digital age. He shared Leica’s journey in implementing Content Credentials and a forecast on what’s ahead for the growing ecosystem.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Leica was an early member of the CAI and committed to the movement since 2019. Why did Leica lean into Content Credentials?

In 2019, when Adobe, Twitter, and The New York Times announced a new system to verify the authenticity of content, we at Leica were immediately intrigued and began conversations with Adobe shortly thereafter. Although it took another three years for the C2PA standard to be finalized, we were eager to join the initiative when Adobe reached out to us again. Our product and engineering teams quickly aligned to create a proof of concept, which was successfully developed in just three months and debuted at Adobe MAX 2022. 

From there, it took nearly a year to implement Content Credentials as we know them today, introducing a secure solution for the serial production of the Leica M11-P. Now, just over a year later, Content Credentials are expanding to a second system with the mirrorless Leica SL3-S. 

From the outset, integrating digital signatures to ensure all content could be verified as authentically captured on camera made perfect sense, and today, we are proud to have two of Leica’s most important camera systems equipped with this groundbreaking technology.

How do Content Credentials work in Leica cameras? It’s currently supported in the M11-P and now, the SL3-S.

To enable Content Credentials for the Leica M11-P and Leica SL3-S, we decided to integrate a secure chipset to ensure the highest level of security. Additionally, each camera receives a unique device certificate during its “birth” on the production line, securely issued by our partner, the Federal German Printing House. 

With the certificate and private key safely stored in the secure chipset, every photo—whether in JPG or DNG format—is signed using our C2PA-compliant algorithm, embedding the Content Credentials directly into the image file.

What challenges did you face during implementation if any?

Overall, we faced three main challenges.

First, performance: The initial software-only solution took nearly a minute to sign an image. Reducing this time to under a second, particularly for RAW photos to fully support DNG, required significant effort and optimization.

Second, security: Finding a secure way to store the private key was a considerable challenge. To ensure a trustworthy solution, we decided to integrate a dedicated secure chipset. This design choice ensured the highest level of security but also made it impossible to enable the feature simply through a firmware update for existing cameras. 

Ultimately, I believe this was the right decision, avoiding the complexities and risks of retrofitting existing products while maintaining the integrity of a highly secure solution. After all, trust is at the core of Content Credentials.

Third, integration: Implementing the entire solution into our cameras, including integrating device certificates from a reliable certificate authority into the production line, was a complex process. 

Despite these challenges, our engineering team—especially under the leadership of Dimitri Biermann—did an outstanding job, making us the first camera manufacturer to achieve this milestone.

What advice do you have for individual advocates and organizations as they begin a journey of Content Credentials adoption? How did you get your team together and inspire them to believe in this mission? 

The real trick is to avoid working in silos. When teams are isolated, progress slows down—something we’ve experienced ourselves, and it’s a common barrier to innovation.

For us, it began with my initial interest in the CAI, followed by involving Dimitri, our systems architect, who quickly got on board. Then, we brought in a dedicated software team to develop it. In my experience, success comes from building a solid product team first and then having skilled engineers bring the vision to life.

The process is generally the same for any product. While this may be a highly technical product, I’m a big believer in having a strong, well-structured product team. When we design products, I typically organize teams around the product experience—starting with a solutions architect and a designer.

In the case of Content Credentials, a designer wasn’t essential at the onset since the product didn’t involve much design initially. However, with the newness of the ecosystem and being among the first hardware manufacturers to implement, design played a larger role and having them onboard sooner made total sense. 

Tell us about a similar experience where a lengthy implementation process ultimately led to a significantly improved product experience.

Products and experiences designed by humans take time—especially when the goal is to create simple solutions, which are often the hardest to achieve. For example, in December 2024, we launched Leica FOTOS 5 with a new feature called “Background Transfer.” Leica FOTOS is a free app for iOS and Android devices enabling photographers to connect, view, and process images from their Leica cameras to their smartphones. 

This feature allows photos to transfer seamlessly to your mobile device in the background, even when the device is locked and in your pocket. My team worked on this experience for several years. It’s a reminder that hard things take time, but are worth the effort to create truly great products. The same goes for Content Credentials: it took over five years from the first post-it note to the Leica SL3-S now featuring this capability.

Where do you see Content Credentials adoption and public awareness five years from now?

The adoption of Content Credentials is progressing exceptionally well. Over the last year, many important players have joined the initiative. It’s crucial that companies across the entire value chain participate in this movement—from capture to editing to sharing. With the Leica M11-P leading the way, it was encouraging to see other camera manufacturers and editing solution providers also come on board.

Now, it’s time for sharing platforms—ranging from social media to news organizations—as well as smartphone manufacturers, to join the effort. This will ensure that people can easily distinguish between a genuine moment captured by a camera and content created by artificial intelligence. Looking ahead, I hope that in five years, most of the content shared online will include Content Credentials, for the benefit of humanity.

Nico Köhler, at center, with members of the Leica team during the CAI Symposium at Stanford University in December 2023. Image credit: Leica Camera AG