S-System - some background by E. Puts

[graeme_hodges]

Dear all,

 

A little more enlightenment from Mr Puts...

 

http://www.imx.nl/photo/Analysis/page119/page119.html

[mike_earussi1]

Interesting, thanks for the link.

[jerry_lehrer1]

Graeme

 

Wow! First Herr Puts says that the camera BODY has a focal plane shutter. Then he says that the LENSES have an internal leaf shutter. I know from my extensive use of H'blads, that this is possible, but no great fun to use.

 

Jerry

[stuart_richardson]

Really, what's so bad about it? I use a hasselblad 203FE and it works quite easily with both focal plane and leaf shutters. If

you want the body shutter, just put the lens in F mode, if you want the leaf shutter, put the body in C mode and select the

speed on the lens. Done. Given that the S2 is fully electronic, it should be even simpler. There is a small switch on the

back that does "CS, FPS, OFF" CS is central shutter, FPS is focal plane shutter and off is, well off. So it should be

extremely simple -- just set the switch to body or the lens shutter. While there may be any number of things to criticize

about the S2, I wouldn't have thought this would be one...it's the best of both worlds in a way.

[marc_bergman1]

I thought this part was interesting.

 

"The Africa/Afrika project (Auto Focus Reflex Camera) was initiated by S. Lee immediately after Photokina 2006. Lee believed that a new DSLR was required for Leica to be assured of continued professional interest and claim the attention of the enthusiast Leica users."

 

Some people have tried to erase the contributions of Mr. Lee. He may have not been the best leader of Leica but this was a rather bold initiative.

[derek_stanton2]

Puts on the S2 lenses:

"The high speed of 2.5 is a direct poke in the eye of the classical Hasselblad lens system that starts at 2.8."

 

Not sure what he's talking about here. If, by "classical," he means the 500-series lenses, it's a silly comparison. And, it ignores

the 200-series' 110mm f2. But, he really should be concerned with the H-series, which offers a 100mm f2.2 lens, faster than

any of the announced S2 glass.

[dmanthree]

Any technical details on this system yet? Will it be limited to lower ISOs like the Hassy system?

[tom_halfhill]

The old Speed Graphic 4x5 press cameras also had both a lens shutter and a focal-plane shutter. A common and tragic mistake was forgetting to lock one shutter open while using the other. Result: blank negatives. When my dad was a wedding photographer in the 1950s, this happened to one of his partners, resulting in not a single photo of the wedding he covered. Presumably, modern dual-shutter cameras like the Leica S2 make this mistake impossible.

[david_rothchild]

These lenses are relatively fast, nothing over f3.5 in the system, However there's nothing faster than f2.5, I was expecting a 110mm f2 APO SUMMICRON ASPH, instead there's a 100 f3.5. Why is there no shutter in the 100 f3.5? The Hasselblad V series are 6x6 format lenses, so not a fair comparison.

[el_fang]

<i>Presumably, modern dual-shutter cameras like the Leica S2 make this mistake impossible.</i>

<p>Actually, even without a fail-safe mechanism, the fact that the S2 is digital makes this mistake impossible. I mean, there <i>is</i> an LCD on the back, and you'd have to chimp at some point, right?</p>

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

"The old Speed Graphic 4x5 press cameras also had both a lens shutter and a focal-plane shutter. A common and tragic mistake was forgetting to lock one shutter open while using the other. Result: blank negatives."

 

That's one of the reasons that I use a Crown Graphic - no focal plane shutter!

[steve_unsworth1]

There's a switch on the back of the camera to select which of the shutters to use. No need to set the body and lens independantly.