Medium Format Leica S2 with new lenses

[david_rothchild]

Price is prohibitive but it's nice to see a new medium format camera and a new set of lenses. Probably

have some very fast shuterless lenses, I wonder how they will compare to the Zeiss FE.

 

http://us.leica-camera.com/photography/s_system/

 

 

http://www.optyczne.pl/index.php?news=1290

[graham_mitchell]

Actually no-one knows the price.... yet. That's the big question.

[benny_spinoza]

I've seen around 20,000USD in some threads. Whatever it is, it is priced for professionals. The price is only prohibitive to amatuers and semi-professionals who don't make enough to justify the cost. I would think a professional with a good book of business would find such tools to be a necessary business investment. What I find appealing is that Leica's road map is to come out with an "amature" version at a later time. Of course, it will never be cheap. But maybe they can bring out models to compete with Nikon D700 and the like? That will be interesting to see.

[benny_spinoza]

Hmm....I must of missed the Romper Room episode that taught us how to spell "a-m-a-t-e-u-r". Sorry. :)

[paul_gardener]

I think I am going to spoil the fun a bit but a "large" sensor with a lot of pixels does not qualify a camera as MF camera.

A number of camera manufacturers make 35 mm based DSLR cameras with lots of pixels, sometimes even exceding MF backs, that do not qualify as MF cameras.

[cabbiinc]

Paul, if you dont call it a medium format camera then what do you call it? Its bigger than the standard 135 format, so what does that make it?

[ralph_jensen]

I agree that the S2 is a "medium format" camera and it belongs in this forum. Some sort of categorizing has to be

done when defining online forums,

and if there are three basic levels of

the "convenience-vs.-IQ" tradeoff - with 35mm (and smaller) maximizing the former part of that tradeoff at the

expense of the latter, and large format and ULF the reverse - it seems that the S2 would definitely go in the

middle. This new Leica is definitely not 35mm, nor is it large-format. (Granted, it doesn't fit photo.net's official

description of this forum ["For 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8, 6x9, 6x12, 6x17 roll film plus digital backs"], but that

can be changed!)

 

Philosophically it hits the traditional "medium format" approach: "Cameras for those who are unsatisfied with the

limits on how much picture information can be recorded by a 24x36mm capture area."

 

Besides, over at the photo.net "Leica and rangefinder" forum there's a lot of head-scratching and "Who is this

new camera

for?" while in this forum even those of us who can't afford it can appreciate what it does.

 

In fact, the S2 is pretty much akin to a camera familiar to all medium-format photographers, the Pentax 67 - i.e., a

camera that looks in photographs merely like a muscular 35mm SLR until you see someone's hands around it (like in

the http://www.optyczne.pl/index.php?news=1290 link) and you say, "Dang, that is a large camera!"

 

OK, so maybe it's bit pricey for those of us who can't pay back the cost with a few studio shoots and are

unwilling to take out a second mortgage(!) to buy a camera. But for those who can both afford it and put it to

good use, it looks like a very

good tool, and the S lenses will retain their value in years to come (as Leica lenses tend to do) while the price

per megapixel for the cameras will likely decline in years to

come (as digital tech tends to do).

 

I suppose it could be awhile before used bargains are available, though....

[graham_mitchell]

I think this is clearly a medium format camera. For one thing, the sensor is around the same size as many existing medium format digital backs, e.g. Phase One P18 and P30, Sinar 65, etc

[gt1]

It's bigger than 24 x 36 so I'd agree that it should go in the med format category.

[david_rothchild]

Can we assume the lenses will cover the 645 format? And maybe this will develop into a full frame 645 digital camera?

[richard_oleson]

Wow, very spiffy! This would be the first larger-than-35mm camera that Leica has ever made, right? Which would require a whole new system of lenses with none of the 35mm ones being able to cover the format? That's ambitious!!

[ymages]

the size is fine ! like a big Canon 5D

[jimsimmons]

No medium format camera has every had a good very wide angle tilt shift lens. The 30mm T/S lens that Leica says it will make for the this system will be very appealing to architectural photographers. Lots of the shoot the high-pixel Canon bodies with the Canon 24mm T/S, but having a sharper lens with a larger CCD will give those shooters the level of quality they really need.

[marco_hidalgo]

A digital sensor of 30 mm. x 45 mm. definitely falls into the MF category. The category is determined by the size of the capture media,

not the shell that contains it. Yes, this camera is like the old Pentax 6x7, but unlike the Pentax, this is not a monster in size, a 35mm

on steroids as the old Pentax was often called. The S2 is meant to be in size somewhere between the Canon 5D and a 1DsMkIII. Or

roughly the size of a Nikon D700!

 

Ralph Jensen said:

"Besides, over at the photo.net "Leica and rangefinder" forum there's a lot of head-scratching and "Who is this new camera for?" while in

this forum even those of us who can't afford it can appreciate what it does."

 

I agree with Ralph, as I was a LF and MF photographer, as well as a Leica user. I can see that the guys at the Leica forum are head-

scratching about this camera.

 

Jim simmons said:

"No medium format camera has every had a good very wide angle tilt shift lens"

 

That is so true. If Leica comes out with a 30mm. T/S lens, that will be wide enough for architectural applications and if the camera

delivers the quality Leica promises, it will definitely be very attractive for that kind of photography.

 

For those of you that have used Leicas, just imagine the quality of Leica optics in combination with such a big sensor. It is not just

about how many mega pixels it is. It is about the Leica optics! Let's see how they do in real life, but I guess we will all have to wait

about a year to see that to happen.

 

Cheers,

Marco.