Leica Announces S2: 37.5 Megapixel, 30×45mm Sensor

Leica has announced the S2, a camera built around and for a 37.5 megapixel, 30×45mm sensor that is 56% larger than sensors used in 35mm sized full frame DSLRs. According to the Professional Photographer, the S2 is roughly the size of a camera somewhere in between the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the EOS 1Ds Mark III. Leica claims that:

“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.”

-Professional Photographer

Leica goes on to say:

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.”

-Professional Photographer

According to DPR, The Leica S2 will also utilize the Maestro image processing system:

The new ‘Maestro’ image processing system provides twice the operating speed of current medium-format backs, significantly reduced power consumption, and allows production of in-camera JPEGs.

-DPR

To go along the with the S2, Leica has 9 new lenses ready to go including a 24mm, 35mm, 70mm, 100mm, 120mm, 180mm, and 30mm tilt-shift.

All of this wrapped up in a stunningly gorgeous weather proof camera body. Instanly, Leica has made all other DSLRs look a wee bit quaint.

Leica S2 Key Features:

• Large 30×45mm sensor containing 37-million pixels
• Small body similar to that of a professional 35mm DSLR
• Weatherproof seals
• Three-inch high-quality LCD screen
• Dual shutter system – focal plane or leaf
• Records files in open DNG format
• Range of nine new lenses, including a 120mm macro, tilt-and-shift 30mm, 70mm f/2.5 standard lens and 24mm ultrawide-angle

Press Release

September 23, 2008: LEICA S2 – Remarkable new camera from Germany redefines the professional DSLR class with a custom 37.5-megapixel, 30 x 45 mm sensor built into a 35mm-sized body.

Some companies tweak the features. At Leica, we transform the concept. That’s why the introduction of the flagship Leica S2 is not merely an incremental advance. It is nothing less than a watershed event that sets an entirely new performance standard for professional digital SLRS.

With a custom 37.5-megapixel, 30 x 45 mm sensor that is 56% larger than full frame, it establishes parameters of imaging excellence that are well beyond those obtainable by conventional pro-caliber DSLRs. In the Leica tradition, it utilizes the classic 3:2 aspect ratio that corresponds to the human field of vision and is widely acclaimed as the “Leica Format.”

In designing this brilliant new camera, Leica’s engineers took a close look at the best existing DSLR designs and then synergized them into a radical but practical new camera that combines the performance parameters of a medium-format digital camera with the ergonomics, form factor, and handling ease of a 35mm SLR. The result is the new Leica S2, an entirely new, finely crafted, professional tool developed in-house by Leica with hands-on input from some of the most renowned professional photographers in the world.

It incorporates an advanced new dual shutter system with in-body focal-plane shutter for fast lenses, and in-lens leaf shutters for high flash sync speeds, an ultra-high-precision autofocusing system, a new series of lenses designed for the highest possible performance with the new sensor, and a Maestro image processing system that provides twice the speed of comparable medium-format backs, reduces power consumption, and provides in-camera JPEG capability. Remarkably, all of this has been incorporated into a camera that is smaller than a full-size professional 35mm SLR, and still has the unmistakable look and feel of a Leica.

Like Leica cameras of the past, we designed the new Leica S2 from the inside out, and its robust styling is a classic example of form following function. We began with a cutting-edge, large-format CCD sensor and literally configured the camera around it rather than adapting existing technologies. In this way we achieved a new level of performance without sacrificing size or convenience. Yes the S2 Leica is our latest masterpiece, an unequivocal statement to the world that showcases our technological prowess. But it is more than just a technological tour de force.

It is a statement of Leica’s continuing pre-eminence in the world of imaging that goes back nearly 100 years. Perhaps that is why our top executives in Germany have compared the announcement of the Leica S2 to the debut of the first Leica, the legendary model A in 1925. That seminal 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.

With Salzburg ACM Projektentwicklungs GmbH as its new owner, Leica Camera AG is entering a new era. Following in-depth and successful re-structuring, the business can now concentrate on investing in new products. Leica has made a quantum leap in the field of digital technology, enabling it to combine the advantages of highly developed digital technology with the classic Leica values concerning optics, mechanics and optimal image results.

The result of this is uncompromising cutting-edge technology; the LEICA S2 is the first to offer all these things to professional digital photographers. The LEICA S system sets the trend for future Leica products in terms of technology and leads the way for future product ideas from Leica Camera AG.

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