S2 hands-on demo in London.

[farnz]

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On Saturday I was fortunate to be invited to a S2 hands-on demonstration that was very kindly arranged by Ivor and Elaine Cooper of Red Dot Cameras and held in a small studio off Old Street. It was a professional studio set-up with lights, wind-machine, charming model and strictly 'policed' by Ivor's small but very eager dog Barney. (This is 'policed' in the sense that anything vaguely resembling a potential food substance that made it to floor level was immediately thoroughly investigated with total concentration and then sampled by vigorous sniffing, pushing with the snout, licking, and trial consumption on the presumption that some non-food substances could be changed into food substances with the correct amount of care, attention, concentration and sheer will-power.)

 

The S2 was mounted with the 1:2.5/70 Summarit-S aspherical lens and was tethered to a laptop.

 

Let me say up-front that I have no previous experience of shooting in a studio setting and that my medium format experience has been for two years with a Fuji GSW 690 III and a dozen or so years with a Pentax 67. So no experience of digital medium format although some experience with a 21 MP digital camera and its files.

 

The level of detail in the DNGs from the S2 was quite frankly astonishing. I am used to viewing c. 4ft by 3ft Cibachrome prints from 6x7 transparencies but the level of detail in the S2 shots was extraordinary. (To balance this, it may be that those who have used high MP digital backs are familiar with this level of detail but to a novice it was breathtaking.) At 100% on-screen enlargement the level of detail bordered on the intrusive and, unluckily for our good-natured model, showed up every natural skin imperfection, crease, and tiny hair.

 

I realise that the resolution available in photos posted on the web cannot do the camera justice but I have included one below with a 100% crop for interest. The shot is directly from the DNG with no processing of any type; all I have done is convert them to jpeg and size to the forum's limits. The white balance, exposure and skin tones are spot-on straight out of the camera despite difficult lighting conditions including ambient tungsten filament lights, fluorescent lamps, soft boxes, and direct and bounced flash.

 

The S2 was very pleasant to handle and use and the AF was fast, quiet and definite and the tactile covering allowed the camera to be held in one hand at any angle for extended periods without feeling that there was a risk of dropping it.

 

I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to Thorsten Overgaard who had taken the S2 for a walk with his R9/DMR and 70-180 APO-Vario-Elmarit for comparison. Thorsten felt that the weight and handling of the S2 was similar to the DMR.

 

My thanks to Ivor and Elaine for organising the day and, all in all, using the S2 was a very pleasant experience and the files were an eye-opener.

 

Barney enjoyed the S2 too, although he felt that the attendees were far to careful with their nibbles.

 

Pete.

 

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JPEG straight from DNG with no processing.

 

100% crop from the same picture, again with no processing.

[spylaw4]

Glad you made it Pete. I had to leave before you arrived.

One small correction - Barney belongs to Adrian, the studio owner.

 

Like you I found the detail on the S2 images quite remarkable, and the camera easy to handle.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing Thorsten's results

[farnz]

Sorry to have missed you too, Brian, I was held up helping friends move house.

 

Thanks for the correction about Barney, it certainly seemed like Barney thought he owned Ivor and Adrian took a superb of Ivor holding 'his owner'.

 

Pete.

[plevyadophy]

Hi Farnz,

 

It was nice to have met you.

 

The event was lovely. I have been to many product launch Demo/Studio Days (Nikon D3, Sony Alpha 900, Hasselblad H3D, Olympus EP-1 and so on) but none of them were as useful, humourous, warm and friendly as this one. The banter and all, was like being part of one big family. I think much of this had to do with the homely atmosphere of the studio, as apposed to all the other launches I have been to where the atmosphere (e.g. Nikon D3 at Olympia) was more cold and corporate; and it sure did help that we had such a lovely unassuming model to work with (unlike some of those horrid prima donnas who dare to call themselves professional models).

 

As you and I discussed, I feel the camera is teasing me. There is something about it that draws me to it, yet there are things about it that I just don't like, so much so that I think I am gonna wait for version II of this camera, which is a pity really. Some of my gripes about the camera are documented here (which I have since modified slightly): http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-s2-forum/95347-s2-leicas-list-sins.html

 

However, gripes aside, the feel of the camera is beautiful. I was impressed by the speed of the AF (It ain't up to Canon or Nikon standards, but then I wasn' t expecting it to be). The lightness of the camera is wonderful, and who in God's name invented the battery charger mechansim?!!!! Whoever it is, should be awarded a medal; that has got to be the coolest/cutest battery charging setup for any camera bar none. And the battery is just so impressively small.

 

Yeah, and the damn resolution/detail. WOW!!

 

Whilst I am disspointed with some of the features that are lacking from the S2, a dust reduction system being one such thing, what the S2 does for me (other than causing me to plan my first bank robbery ) is to consider skipping 35mm format altogether. If the S2 had all the features that i think are missing, it would be a no brainer for me right now as the only thing I would be doing is asking Ivor and Elaine (Red Dot Cameras http://www.reddotcameras.co.uk/) how soon they can have one delivered to me (and no, I am not a high-end fashion shooter).

 

Leica boast of the strength of the USB connection of the S2, to be honest to me it seems a little unnecessary, an over-engineered gimmick. For if the connection is so strong, and one trips over the USB cable, the likely result is that the camera comes crashing to the ground or your laptop to which the camera is tethered decides to try some bungee jumping. It would have been better for the connection to allow the cable to pop out from the camera in response to a certain amount of pressure and for an alarm to flash up or beep to warn the photogapher that the cable is disconnected. Be that as it may, their boast about the connection's strength is certainly justified; I know this because clumsy old me walked towards the model with the USB cable tangled around the table leg and I felt a very strong pull/resistance preventing from going much further to the amusement of some, additionally we were given a demo of the camera being held and swung slightly back and forth by the USB cable. So strong it certainly is, there will be no problems with the Adverstising Standards Agency

 

Anyways, that's all from me for now.

 

Regards all

 

P.S.

Does anyone have experience as a getaway driver? Please send CVs

[farnz]

Nice to meet you too, Paul.

 

I agree that a criticism of the S2 could be the absence of some of the features that we've become accustomed to in other brands, such as auto sensor cleaning and Live View, but if that's the worst anyone could level at the S2 then Leica's got an awful lot of things right.

 

My suspicion is that the S2's designers' remit was a time-honoured Leica 'only the necessary frills' approach and the usefulness of these features may have got lost in the process.

 

Pete.

[piero]

did you guys see my sample image?

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-s2-forum/108088-s2-sample-image.html

 

Quality seems very different.