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.
Rene Braun , Jun 07, 2006; 02:15 p.m.
...roughly the size of a can of Sardines? ;-)
Dennis Couvillion 
, 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!
