Leica stuns industry with new S-System
Brand-new digital photographic system announced 
The Leica S2 was due to be announced at the Photokina trade show the week of 22 September, but Professional Photographer was able to preview a prototype at an exclusive briefing in London.
“We realised that many professionals work with medium format but also keep another camera – a Canon or a Nikon – for location work,” said Leica UK’s David Bell. “We wanted to make something to occupy that middle ground -- a camera that would give the quality of medium format and the handling and flexibility of 35mm.”
From Pro’s experience with Leica’s prototype S2, we’d say the camera sits roughly between Canon’s EOS 5D and EOS 1Ds MkIII in terms of size, and feels very ergonomic.
Leica product manager Maike Harberts said the S2 would be very much a tool for a professional photographer. “We have a stunning line-up of nine lenses in the S-system. Some will have leaf shutters to enable flash sync at fast shutter speeds, other will be smaller and rely on the S2’s built-in focal plane shutter,” she said. “We expect the S2 to be able to perform twice as fast as Hasselblad H-series cameras and put in a better performance at high ISOs too.”
Harberts also said the technology from the S2 would trickle down to other yet-to-be-announced Leica digital cameras.
37-megapixel Leica S2, is aimed at the top-end professional photographer shooting advertising, fashion and other commercial work. Its sensor is 56% larger than those used in 35mm full-frame DSLRs.
Leica S2 at a Glance |
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