Camera Labs

Hi folks,

Those nice folks at dPhotoexpert have revealed the UK SRPs of the Leica S2 system.

Leica S-System: 2009 range pricing details


• LEICA S2 Black.......................................£15,996.00
• LEICA S2-P Black*..................................£19,092.00
• SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/70 ASPH...................£3,096.00
• SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/70 ASPH CS..............£4,025.00
• APO-TELE-ELMAR-S 1:3.5/180.................£4,541.00
• APO-TELE-ELMAR-S 1:3.5/180 CS............£5,160.00
• APO-MACRO-SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/120.......£4,541.00
• APO-MACRO-SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/120 CS..£5,160.00
• SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/35 ASPH....................£3,612.00
• SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/35 ASPH CS...............£4,231.00
• Multifunction handgrip S...........................£851.00
• Professional battery charger S..................£258.00
  
  * includes Sapphire Glass monitor screen and S-Body Platinum Service (more details to be announced)
  CS = Central Shutter Lens
  Prices include VAT at 15%, 30 July 2009

I wonder if they do air-miles?

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Coincidently, the other day I was wondering if it was worth skipping FF and going straight to digital medium. The lack of general info wasn't helpful, but I did look at the S2. For a sensor "only" 1.5x the area of FF (erm... uncrop factor 0.6x ish?) I don't see it as adding enough additional value.

On the positive side, the 1Ds3 now looks very affordable in comparison.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

The main reason we buy FF cameras is for the excellent high ISO performance. I don't think the Leica S2 is designed for such usage and most medium format cameras have a very low maximum ISO, 800 was the maximum I came across.

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PhilipGoh.com

I'd mildly disagree that FF over crop advantage is primarily the ISO performance, although that is a contributing factor. To me it is more the DoF impact from the bigger sensor. Medium is that and more. I think digital medium, at least on the cheap end, are simply limited in ISO range as they're not at the levels of refinement that has gone into DSLR sensors. The Mamiya equivalent is much cheaper than the Leica, has a rediculously low MP count (compared to modern DSLR), yet from memory is capped at ISO400 and they don't even recommend using that due to noise.

Wild prediction: if Sony does bring out the rumoured cheap FF, we might see someone try to bring medium into the high end consumer space. Like this Leica but with more realistic pricing.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Euro prices are 18.6k resp. 22.2k for the S2-P (incl. 24h rent-service should your copy need repair). As this is from a German mag, I'd assume prices include 19% You-know-VAT.
So the Leica M9 and the Nikon D3x definitely look cheap in comparison (both already down to 5500EUR incl. VAT)

Btw.: It shoots at 1.5 fps and weighs 1410g "wet" (i.e. incl. battery)

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

.
and I dread to think what the lenses cost but there's no getting around the fact that MF lenses are big and heavy in the hand and heavy on the wallet, even though the S2 body is remarkably small for it's sensor. Even the price of the M9 plus some glass makes top of the range Canon and Nikon kit look like a bargain.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Yeah! Compare the D3x at 160x157x88mm, 1300g vs. the S2 at 160x120x80, 1410g

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

M9 with its best glass can whoop the top stuff from Canon and Nikon though.

S2 is in a totally different league, and i'd say its pretty decent compared to the rest of the MF systems. Especially for location photographers.

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

Don't know whether this has already been published elsewhere, but there is an interesting article in the German mag "EL-info" about internal works of the S2:
- Sensor is a 7500x5000 pixel Kodak design for 4 readout channels
- There is 1GByte of internal storage that can store 8 images in burst-mode, 10 images in so called "one point mode"
- It's 14 bit a/d conversion in 0.6 secs per image
- The processor is an ASIC from Fujitsu Microelectronics and it's said to be the first camera not using a "simple" DSP
- RAW image has 75 MByte (x10=750MB) The remaining mem is used for the program code of the ASIC
- AS the ASIC contains one 32-Bit RISC CPU and a DSP for 32-Bit processing plus a host of other accelerators much processing is done in parallel, e.g. the conversion to YCrCb color space needs another 0.5 secs

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Yep - indeed very interesting if you're a professional photographer who routinely have your work printed at very large sizes.

I believe I save a small blurb about this in Shutterbug or another magazine..I think it was suggested to be around 8.000 or 9.000 pound sterling for body alone, but I may be wrong.

For commercial almost-too-sharp-to-be-real photography..lol..this one is going to be a contender. If the lenses live up to Leica's pedigree, I could see some studios jump on this one.

Good to see that Leica appears to be going strong. Their M9 is also quite the contender in the market, I should think.

Cheers

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Nikon stuff and other stuff, but not nearly as much stuff as I really want!

Hi folks,

Dale photo and digital have posted a series of video tours of the Leica S2 on YouTube. They're available in low resolution all the way up to 1080p which looks stunning if you have the bandwidth.

An interesting camera with a very different user interface to the one I'm familiar with on my 5D2 but which seems well thought out. I'd never buy one but it's fun to see how the other half lives.

Physical Features
Menu Sytem Introduction
Camera Menu
Image Menu
Setup Menu
Playback Menu
Changing Shooting Modes
Custom Functions

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.