The LEICA S1 digital camera from 1997

[reprobit]

mike, how many of these posters do you need to be twice-pleased?
still have them in stock

Bernd

[sdai]

Originally Posted by reprobit

In 2000 Leica Camera stopped the development of digital cameras in conjunction with corporate management decisions. Nearly all developers and 6 of 7 marketing staff left the company.

That's when Hermes bought 31% of Leica stock, right?

[carstenw]

Bernd, a quick note: in English, "actual" means something like "real", or the opposite of "virtual". The word you want is probably "current".

[Philippe D.]

Just for curiosity...
on July 25th 2006, a S1 Alpha with all his accessory was sold on iB for $2000 (1585€ that day).

[reprobit]

Thanks Carsten, i ment "up to date" ...


sdai: yes, hat was when Hermes bought 31% of Leica stock and Mr. Cohn changed the strategic objecitve from producing tools to toys...

[carstenw]

Bernd, although I see what you mean, I think that is a bit harsh. He is also credited with turning around the financial performance. It has yet to be seen if it was enough, and fast enough, to save the company.

[pascal_meheut]

Originally Posted by reprobit

sdai: yes, hat was when Hermes bought 31% of Leica stock and Mr. Cohn changed the strategic objecitve from producing tools to toys...

I remember this period quite well. I had been invited to test drive a Saab and wanted to try one. So I went to the event which was hosted in a prestigious part of Paris to discover that Bang & Olufsen and Leica was there too.

Clearly, they were target wealthy people with little technical knowledge and some interest in design, to say the least (no offense intended)

I talked with the Leica representative and he told me that their strategy was to represent "the tradition". It seemed quite stupid at the time because photographic equipment has always been about technical progress and its history is full of dead systems (and dead companies too).

And yes, moving away from digital was such a smart move

[Riley]

Originally Posted by pascal_meheut

And yes, moving away from digital was such a smart move

indeed, that was a really 'out there' sort of decision
i would be interested to hear more

[pascal_meheut]

As far as I know, Coen previous job was CEO of a furniture maker and he saved the company by positioning it as "traditional".
So he did what 99.9% of people do: he applied the exact same solution to a totally different problem because it worked once

[reprobit]

Carsten, it is undisputed that the management was (and is) "credited with turning around the financial performance. It has yet to be seen if it was enough, and fast enough, to save the company."

You can glean the decisions in the official Leica documents. The financial strategy temporarily softened the situation, but the company philosophy and the derived product strategy result in the actual misalignment which has to be revised now.

I do not think it is "harsh" to describe that short term considerations sometimes involve serious consequences.

I do not indend do discuss this here in-depht. Regarding the S1 I am willing to push the article.

Bernd

[scott kirkpatrick]

Berndt, was the S1 used in architectural work? What was the widest angle lens supported (shortest focal length)? Do you have any demo examples?

scott

[reprobit]

The S1 was rarely used in architectural work because you need a tethered pc.

The WA-lenses I used are Leica R 15mm, R19mm, Shift 28mm, Canon FD 17mm, Nikon 19mm and others. I did not test the Canon 2.8/14mm. The most outstanding results I recieved with the 15 and 19mm Leica lenses.

Most images are originated in private Installations and museums. They can´t be shown public. It will take some time to dig some others out. I´ll have to keep you waiting till summer because I move into a new studio.

Bernd

[carstenw]

Bernd, as a final comment (from me), I meant "harsh" with respect to your tools-to-toys statement. Leica cameras are still not toys. They are slightly less serious tools, but still great cameras.

Btw, where is Minox City?

[flavio]

bernd,
today looking around the web for S1 infos, i found this interesting thread and your web site. i think S1 was one of the most advanced camera ever, including its body style that i still consider very acceptable from a modern perspective.
probably just a personal taste.
also appreciate the S1 brochure i have downloaded from your site. thanks for your informative messages.

flavio

[farnz]

I agree, Flavio, and I venture that the S1 was clearly ahead of its time.

I was amused to see one of the blog-style info-websites yesterday say something like: "The S2 is a ground-breaking camera from Leica and it leaves room for an update called the S1." If he only knew ...

Pete.

[flavio]

pete,
you're right and unfortunately some photo sites are even waiting for something new getting the "1" after the "S" (maybe they're still thinking to M3 - M2 -M1 path).

oh, btw, great camera that M3! :-)

[overgaardcom]

Very interesting story. I remember I saw an S1 in one of the city's largest photo studios where they had a handful of photographers doing pack shots of products for various store chains advertisement.

They had build a new and smaller studio with special UV lightning and they were blown out by that camera and the speed with which they could produce print-ready pictures; the alternative was expensive film, transport to and fro lab, then expensive scanning. That was days, or hours if you squeezed it. But with the S1 they could deliver here and now.

The price tag was unreal back then, but it was worth every penny in time and materials saved.

I've been updating my S1 story on my Leica History page the last few days:
leica.overgaard.dk - Thorsten Overgaard's Leica Sites - Leica History (in progress)

[Ruhayat]

With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to say Leica messed up big time by killing off digital development. But around that time even a lot of of tech companies -- who really should know better -- equally misjudged the future that we take for granted today. Let's not forget that even the great Microsoft empire, with Bill Gates still at its helm, misjudged the importance of the Internet and was left behind with just 5% of the browser market for 5 years.

[elansprint72]

One for sale here:

Scan High Spee Digital Camera Leica S1 Alpha Set on eBay, also, 35mm SLR, Film Cameras, Cameras Photo (end time 23-Oct-08 13:23:45 BST)