My Leica S2 Review Is Up!

[sunil]

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The S2 and the M9 are two utterly different cameras, especially because one is a SLR and the other is a RF camera. Even comparing cameras of these two categories with same-size sensors, they would be utterly different. You use them differently. You think differently. You see differently (read Sean Reid's new piece on 'Seeing the Subject' at http://www.reidreviews.com). Different kinds of people use them for different purposes in different situations.

 

You are not even comparing apples to oranges, but apples to coconuts.

 

Oh yes, the M9 is improveable. Weather sealing (or rather, humidity proofing) would be good to have. Electronics will improve. So what? (a) The M9 is the ultimate camera for a lot of people. ( No camera will remain ultimate forever -- not even the S2.

 

Nothing should be judged by what it is not, but by what it is.

 

The old man from the Age of Perforated Strips of Celluloid

 

Is that really the case? If I had an M9+ with 39 MP and auto focus capabilities, why exactly would I need an S2? The M9 crowd is already hankering for an M10 with possibly AF capabilities and other enhancements. Seems to me that unless you plan on printing really large photos, the S2 would not have significant advantages over the M10 or M(x). How do you use an SLR or MF differently from a rangefinder? This is not rhetorical and I am really interested on what you mean when you say one uses them differently. I can see things like handholding versus tripods but I think you mean one thinks differently between the two. That is the part I'd like to know more about.

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[Mauribix]

Steve, another cool review from you! I enjoy reading and watching at that!

Thanks for sharing.

[jaapv]

Is that really the case? If I had an M9+ with 39 MP and auto focus capabilities, why exactly would I need an S2? The M9 crowd is already hankering for an M10 with possibly AF capabilities and other enhancements. Seems to me that unless you plan on printing really large photos, the S2 would not have significant advantages over the M10 or M(x). How do you use an SLR or MF differently from a rangefinder? This is not rhetorical and I am really interested on what you mean when you say one uses them differently. I can see things like handholding versus tripods but I think you mean one thinks differently between the two. That is the part I'd like to know more about.

I've once seen it described as rangefinder photography is photographing from within, SLR photography from without. It is hard to describe, but there certainly is a difference in approach.

[plasticman]

Looks as if CA is going to be an issue. No CA correction applied to DNG. It is only noticeable if you pixel-peep.

 

S2 + 70mm

 

Ed

 

I hope you don't mind me agreeing with some others here about the bokeh in that image. I'm hoping the post-processing or jpeg / save-to-web compression did at least some of the damage?

[Constable]

I hope you don't mind me agreeing with some others here about the bokeh in that image. I'm hoping the post-processing or jpeg / save-to-web compression did at least some of the damage?

 

I know what you mean, but it really is like that! Looking at the RAW with nothing applied and also with the default conversion in LR3 b2 the bokeh is a bit strange. I haven't seen anything quite like it since.

 

The shot was taken early morning with light behind me, lense wide open and 1/1000 s at ISO 160.

 

I walked over and took a similar composition with D3X and Zeiss 100 mm and had a very similar image.

 

I think it was "just one of those things"

 

Ed

[Gentleman Villain]

Hi Constable, you've got great taste in lenses and I also enjoy the zeiss 100 for nikon mount. A major issue with the posted image is not really the camera but rather the lighting ratios present in the scene. The fountain appears green or dark green, yet some of it's edges are actually looking beyond white. I'd imagine this overexposure was done to try and bring in detail in the shadow areas. A darker exposure would have kept detail in the fountain edges but then the shadow detail would have disappeared. A brighter exposure brings detail into the shadows but washes out the blacks and blows the detail in the edges. It's a no-win situation. The only way to deal with a poor lighting ratio like that is to use some kind of lighting tools (like fill flash, scrims, reflectors etc) or stack multiple exposures in post. None of us should be too surprised when strange things like weird bokeh or bits of purple start to pop up when working with poor lighting ratios. It's pretty much impossible to choose a good single exposure when working with such poor ratios without additional lighting accessories or use of exposure stacking software. BTW - best of luck with future shoots...you seem to have some really cool cameras to play with

[Constable]

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Thanks Gentlemean

 

That's what I was trying to express when I gave you the shooting conditions. i was working without fill flash.

 

Thinking about it, the LR2 presets look as if they did a bit more lightening of the image than I would have expected.

 

Ed