Leica enters the digital SLR market with 37.5 megapixel surprise
Leica pulled the biggest surprise at this year's Photokina trade show with the launch of a new 37.5 million pixel camera. Olivier Laurent was given details in advance of the official announcement
Leica has launched an entirely new digital camera system destined to bridge the gap between more versatile professional digital SLRs and medium-format high resolution models.
The S2, which has a 37.5 million pixel resolution, is the first of many future models that will form part of the S system. The first model sports a 30x45mm CCD sensor, which is 56% bigger than a typical 35mm sensor. The sensor was developed by Kodak, which has been working with Leica since it introduced its first digital rangefinder, the M8, and the Modul-R digital back for the R system.
The camera incorporates a new dual shutter system with in-body focal-plane shutter for fast lenses, and in-lens leaf shutters for high flash sync speeds. It also sports a high-precision autofocusing system, and Leica's Maestro image processing system, claimed to deliver twice the speed of comparable medium-format backs. It's also said to reduce power consumption.
The S2 has a one-point autofocus, which can be overridden at any time.
'We started from scratch,' Leica's product manager Maike Harberts tells BJP. 'All the components that define the quality of the image were designed for each other. We began with a large-format CCD sensor and literally configured the camera around it, rather than adapting existing technologies'.
Fujitsu designed the Maestro image processor especially for Leica's S system. 'It's twice as fast as the one from Hasselblad H3DII-39,' Harberts claims. It allows the camera to shoot images in a variety of formats, including raw, JPEG and DNG to ensure complete future compatibility.
The weather-proof S2 is smaller than top Canon or Nikon DSLR, Leica says, but provides the same features usually found in medium format cameras. 'For example, the S2 obtains better results at high ISO than any other current digital back,' claims Harberts.
The S2 will retail at around €20,000 (body-only), and is aimed primarily at fashion and commercial shooters who want medium format quality combined with a DSLR's speed and versatility.
'This is a long-term investment for Leica,' says Stefan Daniel, one of Leica's senion product managers. 'We take this very seriously. The S2 is the new flagship in our portfolio and will become the technology platform for all future Leica products. We want to have the best professional camera system and set new standards, as well as reach new customer groups.
'We saw an opportunity,' he continues. 'There was a very small window to get into the [high-end] DSLR market. We are first going to focus on the pro market before dropping the technology to other lower-priced DSLRs. Eventually we will launch models for amateurs and other pros. We've developed a technology platform and we will split it to the other systems. This is the logical step. This is a pro camera, but of course we will have something for everyone else. This is the commercialisation of what photographers are and have been looking for'.
The new system will also allow Leica to move beyond the specialised rangefinder market. 'We want to grow,' says Harberts. Backed by its new owners, Salzburg ACM Projektentwicklungs, Leica has already expanded its workforce to handle the new system and an expected increase in production output. Over the past year, Leica has hired 100 new employees to work on the 'AFRika' project, as the S system was known internally, and other systems, such as the R and M lines of products.
The launch of the new system is being compared, at Leica, to the debut of its first camera, the model A, in 1925. 'That camera did nothing less than redefine 35mm photography in the 20th Century and we believe that the Leica S2 may well do the same for DSLR photography in the 21st,' Leica claims.
The development started two years ago, after Leica took a frsh look at its digital strategy. The S2 will be released in summer 2009. Additional specifications for the new system will be released early next year, however, Leica presented a working prototype at the Photokina trade show this week.
Visit www.1854.eu to view a series of 13 images of the new system with its lenses.
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