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Leica S2 Review by Guy Mancuso and Jack Flesher/ GetDPI.com


Guest guy_mancuso

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Guest farbtupfer

 

To be honest I feel a little underwhelmed with the S2, not because it's no good, but because it's not any better than the competition, particularly after all the hype.

 

Thats marketing...

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Many thanks for this Guy and Jack, really appreciate the time you both spent on this.

 

To be honest I feel a little underwhelmed with the S2, not because it's no good, but because it's not any better than the competition, particularly after all the hype.

 

Hmmm... not any better is a matter of perspective I suppose. The S2 isn't in my future, not for a while anyway ($$$$$ and no long lenses yet) but the form factor and weather sealing would be a big deal to me. Tethering and a removable back, not so much. Many thanks Guy and Jack for the review.

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Guest guy_mancuso

Doug for your type of work the S2 makes some sense. It's quieter and your needs don't need the modular design but you also need the long stuff or at least a 1.4 on the 180mm which I found to be a nice lens. Actually I liked it better than the 70mm. It is a really nice cam with a lot of potential and I believe there certainly is a place for it just needs to age some but I give Leica a lot of credit for taking the risk on it. Certainly will appeal to a lot of folks. BTW thanks for the comments, my only regret is Idid not ask for it longer since i did not get to everything but I know a lot of that data is around and we focused much more on the output than it's functionality and ergo's. Hopefully in February I will get it again but some things I would like to have on my system is the 3 inch LCD, 2 card slots and maybe the weather sealing also. It's a nice cam and I do wish Leica the best with it.

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Guy,

 

Thanks for the really thorough review (as usual from your good self). The IQ looks as it should hold its own. It'll be interesting to see how the colour balance changes with final firmware. Maybe the S2 will be the kodachrome camera in the MF world, like the DMR was in the SLR scenario.

 

Best wishes,

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Yeh, if Tiger Woods got one then I'll buy one too. LOL

 

Hey, seriously, why should I buy something just because someone else is buying something? on another hand, Guy has a long track record on the forums and I put more trust in his words than many others' though I don't always agree with him.

 

Good work, Guy. Thanks for making my decision easier. :)

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I think Guy and Jack's review is the first that spits out the characteristics as best as possible. Suppling such large quantities of RAW files is also very generous - goodness knows what it will do to their bandwidth charges.

 

This is this kind of honest, down to earth review that is so sorely missing these days - particularly in relation to Leica equipment, which all to often falls to fanboys.

 

It's convinced me that the S2 in its current form is definitely not for me, although I'm certain others will think differently which is great news. Form factor aside, there is no obvious quality/size/weight advantage over other systems, and with far less flexibility.

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Thanks, Guy

 

Jim Rakate commented in the newsletter about the S2 and depth of focus (or focus spread.) I believe this started to become evident in the test photos of the attractive female models. The apparent difference in depth of focus between the Phase and S2 was one of the most interesting things for me to view in the Phase/Leica shoot-out test.

 

Both are very nice camera systems. I'm still planning to get an S2 but would not be unhappy with the Phase + Schneider glass. The Mamiya lenses also held up well in your test photos. It's great to have some genuinely good choices available in the DMF market at this time.

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Guest guy_mancuso

Yea the one bad part is a 150 vs a 180 there is a difference in DOF for sure. The 180 being shallower because of the length although I would love a 200 2.8 AF for my Phase for sure and that would match the two perfectly. I seriously do wish my 150 was longer. We did a older 200mm 2.8 manual focus in there for kicks and it is a great lens for the money for sure just not a AF model. Bummer

 

The 180mm on the S2 was a good call for Leica , nice focal length on that cam.

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... not sure if this is what Rakate meant or not, but I was referring to something other than depth of field. From my understanding, some people refer to depth of focus to describe the flipside of depth of field. ..which might be used to describe... for example, the perception of sharpness in transitions between in-focus and out-of-focus areas of an image.

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Guest guy_mancuso

Almost like tonal transition if I understand you correctly. Something that maybe lacking right now with the raw converters as well . C1 is blocking highlights for sure right now. Now on the focus part not sure it could be the focal lengths but again the smoothness of the focus transition is a interesting comment. Something to explore for sure.

 

Glad to see you are thinking of getting the S2 , I think with a little aging it is going to be a good cam. Just needs to get everything in place.

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Nice review, seems very "real".

I have no experience with MF, and I may be naive saying this, but I find it remarkable that a camera maker steps into completely new territory and has a competitive system even before the actual start! (FW and SW tweaks pending, as usual...).

Sort of like Volkswagen going straight into F1 and mixing it up with the Ferraris and McLarens and getting them worried from the qualifying...

It's kind of amusing that some people are dissapointed that it didn't win the pole position already...

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