Leica S2? Where is the S1?

Author:

Olivier Laurent

As the name suggests, Leica's latest camera is a successor to the S1, launched more than a decade ago.

However, the S2 predecessor could not have been more different. Released in 1996, the S1 was a scanning back and was designed for only studio photographers, as well as for archiving and documentation purposes.

Available in three versions – Pro, Alpha and Highspeed – the S1 could capture images for print sizes of up to A2 format in 300dpi. It was favoured for reproductions of arwork, photography of sculptures and digitalisation of transparencies, among other applications. The file sizes could reach 152MB with the Pro model.

The S1 could also support a series of third-party lenses from Hasselblad, Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Zeiss, Olympus, Pentax, Sinar and Mamiya. It retailed, at the time, from €10,000 to €23,000, and was discontinued in 2000 with Leica even removing all information of the system from its website.

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