The S1, The first digital Leica 1998
Peter Werner , Jun 07, 2006; 02:06 p.m.
It may have been mentioned before on this forum. But as a reminder to those
claiming Leica has no experience of digital imaging:
In 1998, Leica introduced the award winning Leica S1 high end digital camera.
Leica S1 has a CCD chip with resolution of 5140 x 5140 pixels and 36 bit depth.
According to Leica, S1 could create a picture 17" x 17" with dymanic range of
2000:1, rivalling the best of 35mm transparancy. The model was priced at $21,
500.
Responses
Rene Braun , Jun 07, 2006; 02:15 p.m.
...roughly the size of a can of Sardines? ;-)
dennis c , Jun 07, 2006; 02:37 p.m.
Aaaah... the famous "Bear Trap Leica". A little known fact is that production was discontinued after a rash of nasty law suits from users whose paws became entangled when the camera's arms snapped shut. ;>)
Ian W. , Jun 07, 2006; 03:18 p.m.
It was/is a scanning back. Stating it has a CCD chip of 5140 x 5140 is misleading to say the
least.
Terry Rory , Jun 07, 2006; 03:50 p.m.
Vincenzo Maielli , Jun 07, 2006; 04:16 p.m.
Hi, dear friend. Yes, i remember this digicam. The technical specifications was very impressive but i think was only a prototype, maybe.
Ciao
Skip Williams , Jun 07, 2006; 05:12 p.m.
Sold? Yes. Practical? No.
Tethered operation only via a scanning back.
I doubt whether they built it themselves.
Skip
Henry A , Jun 07, 2006; 06:09 p.m.
Oh no, they were very practical for anything that didn't move. I owned several Leaf and Agfa scanning cameras back then. Shooting tethered from a Mac worked great for catalog stuff (crap on white, etc) I could turn out loads of 4 color separated files in a day, all ready to use in the page layouts.
As for the CCD specs, these cameras scan what would be the film plane. The files were absolutely wonderful quality and about 60MB in 8 bit. Much better than current DSLR files. Imagine scanning the actual scene with your Nikon 5000 scanner or similar - no grain, no noise, just beautiful pixels. With all the control over curves, black and white points, etc. you could want in the software. Of course the exposure times were in minutes, but they worked great for things that stood still.
Jonathan Reynolds 
, Jun 08, 2006; 04:00 a.m.
Looks like the front was styled by B&O and the back was styled by Phillips.
Paul Neuthaler , Jun 08, 2006; 07:33 a.m.
I love mine -- and will never sell it!
Skip Williams , Jun 08, 2006; 10:27 a.m.
Practical? Well, it was late last night when I posted that and I definitely should have couched that opinion. For studio work, catalogs, immobile subjects, it seems like a nice product and I'm sure the optics and electronics produce nice results. But it's not a general purpuose camera......but of course, it never was intended to be such an animal.
Skip
Rene Braun , Jun 08, 2006; 10:32 a.m.
I suppose it could also double up as a nifty combat frisbee...
craig h , Jun 08, 2006; 11:03 a.m.
Libraries and Museums also picked them up for technical recording and lab work.
still a useful tool for the right aplications.
C.
Michael S. , Jun 08, 2006; 11:36 a.m.
Looks a bit like a go-cart steering wheel with a lens in the middle instead of a horn. Truly not a mass-market kind of thing.
Bear-trap Leica :-)
Bob Haight , Jun 08, 2006; 03:35 p.m.
They are great aren't they Paul? Best user camera, I've found.
Mark Sampson , Jun 09, 2006; 07:53 a.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York used one to photograph, and help restore, some enormous 14th century tapestries. The technical requirements were staggering- there was a long and deatiled article in the New Yorker last year describing the effort. About as far as you can get, photographically, from digital point'n'shoot happy-snaps.
Frank Farmer , Jun 09, 2006; 05:35 p.m.
If I remember correctly, there were two different versions of that camera in the catelog. I'm not sure what the differences were. Also, wouldn't they take M and R lenses? Or, did I make that up?
Frank Farmer
Jackson, Miss.
Pierre Smith , Jun 11, 2006; 06:58 a.m.
The lens adaptors included Leica M + R Hasselblad, Zeiss, Contax, Canon FD, Minolta, Nikon, Novoflex, Rodenstock, Schneider. A shift adaptor allowed lens shifts with medium format optics. Leica certainly has experience when it comes to its lenses digital performance. Image files were 160Mb 48bit Raw using silverfast scanner software.
I actually saw the results off one as a 24" wide poster print. Lamp voltage stabilization was critical for an even image.
It confirmed my view that leica lenses especially the macros and summicrons capabilities are wasted on normal film. This was after research with Copex Blue and Tech Pan in the late 70's.
Cheers Pierre
Yang Wen , Jun 22, 2006; 12:22 p.m.
I think this explains why Leica was so far behind in digital cameras.
Peter Werner , Jun 23, 2006; 03:15 a.m.
There is currently one for sale at Ffordes for GBP 3999 (USD 7300)
Peter Werner , Jun 23, 2006; 03:19 a.m.
I think this explains why Leica was so far behind in digital cameras.
I do not understand your logic, Yang. They were already offereing an excellent, although very specialized camera 8 years ago.
Thomas Morgan 
, Jun 23, 2006; 09:48 a.m.
Mark,
There's a brief view of the camera and the shooting rig used to photograph the
Unicorn Tapestries,
in a NOVA ScieneNow segment available
here - click
on one of the "Watch the Segment Links". The camera appears briefly a little less than half
way into the clip, right after the Barbara Bridgers interview scene.
The New Yorker article describing the the Unicorn shoot and image processing is
here
...Tom M
