An S2 strategy: your thoughts?

[fotografz]

Why any professional photographer would buy into a system with only 3-4 lenses is beyond me.

Because that's all they need?

Actually the better question is why would any Professional photographer buy ANY full system at these prices when they could rent the specific speciality lenses only when needed.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Let's talk reality for a second; The majority of high end (digital) fashion photography in recent years has been done on either Canon 1Ds II/ III cameras or Phase/ Leaf backs attached to H1/H2 or an RZ. If this new camera wants to succeed there it needs to win the Canon on Speed/ potability/ high iso & fast AF and then to win the MF solutions on tethered workflow and image quality

Or it can sit somewhere in the middle, being slightly faster than MF and slightly better than Canon (IQ wise).

Tethered workflow is where MF is king (at least Phase and Leaf) and this is after 15 years (since 1994, when the Leaf Catchlight was introduced) of fine tuning it and optimising its performance and functionality.

The two most popular software packages (for tethering MF) in recent years have been C1 (3 and later on 4) and LC. The new camera tethers to none of those.

High iso, portability, fast AF and fast capture is where Canon is king (and recently Nikon as well). The new camera offers nothing better in those areas.

This is how it is going to be judged for high end fashion photography plus it'll have to be widely available in rental in the major cities. 1,000 units/ year are not going to make an impact there I'm afraid.

Have to agree these shooters do NOT buy MF gear they rent for almost every big job and getting rental houses stocked around the world with S2's is going to be really tough when they are already loaded with Phase, Hassy and Leaf gear. Otherwise they are shooting Canons mostly and for editorial work no one hardly shoots MF because there is no money in shooting editorial so either they own MF or they shoot with existing gear , there is no money for rentals only the advertising shoots they can chargeback the rental fee's . Pretty rare on editorial to get rental fees included in the shoot.

Just the tethered stuff alone in a advertising shoot is not luxury to have it is a demand from the art directors and clients. Hot folder operation is not very elegant. You really want dedicated software for this so you can fine tune WB, Use color editor to match clothing and obviously lighting , posing and all that stuff as well but from the technical side you need to make all the adjustments apply that than all remaining shots come in exactly the same. This part is very under estimated how important this is to say have the blue jean color match exactly to the product.

 

[PeterA]

You have to ask yourself - why didnt Leica continue the relationship with C1 with the S2 - since it worked so well with the M series cameras?

Anyone have any clues on this? Seems to be a BIG hole in their strategy of delivering a professional camera system for professionals - if they cant shoot tethered?

 

[Shelby Lewis]

Why any professional photographer would buy into a system with only 3-4 lenses is beyond me.

I shoot most weddings, in entirety, with two primes...

3-4 lenses is perfect (for me)

 

[John Black]

Marc - if you're still think about a S2, the wait just a got longer... Due in December now.

 

[peterv]

Interesting discourse, enjoyable read!

In related news:

http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=870175

 

[LJL]

Hmmm....so rather than ship those that are supposedly ready for the October delivery, they are choosing to hold all of them up until some production catches up for December delivery? Just sounds like there may be something other than production catch-up issues here, like needing to tweak more things that still are not where they should be. Just my speculation here, and I probably should not, but let's see if they actually make the December delivery before really wondering what is going on.

LJ

 

[dfarkas]

You have to ask yourself - why didnt Leica continue the relationship with C1 with the S2 - since it worked so well with the M series cameras?

Anyone have any clues on this? Seems to be a BIG hole in their strategy of delivering a professional camera system for professionals - if they cant shoot tethered?

Leica's decision to move to Adobe was made in Dec 2008, just 2-3 months after the P1-Leica alliance was announced.

The reasons were twofold:

1) The S2 is now a direct competitor to Phase One's hardware business. There were concerns at Leica that P1 would somehow undermine the output quality from C1. There was also the issue that anyone receiving a copy of C1 must register on Phase's website with name, email, address, and product. Essentially, Leica would be handing over their entire list of S2 customers on a silver platter.

2) From a software point of view, Adobe brings a lot to the table. LR has become the most popular and widely used RAW processor in a very short amount of time. Adobe products are stable, full-featured, and ubiquitous. Adobe won't stop their pace of development. LR 3 is expected to be out within a matter of months. The integration with CS4 (later CS5) is also beneficial. Ultimately, Leica felt that Adobe would be the strongest software partner for the long term.

Why don't we wait and see what the Leica Image Shuttle application looks like before passing judgment on tethering capability?

David

 

[PeterA]

Hi david,

Thanks for that.

Also I PM'd you a while back in response to your PM...woudl appreciate your thoughts?

Pete

 

[ddk]

I shoot most weddings, in entirety, with two primes...

3-4 lenses is perfect (for me)

3-4 lenses is perfect for me too and probably as well as a lot of other photographers, but it depends on which 3 or 4. I'm among the group who's ready to jump on the S2 early on, but there are two things that are holding me back. One is the lack of dedicated software, which might turn out to be a good thing but since my past experience with DNG files hasn't been to my liking, its something that I need to see for myself. The unresolved issue is the lack of a normal wide angle in the 40mm-50mm range, this is a biggy for me since its one of my main focal lengths. I know about the zoom lens and as great as it might be, I just don't want one and nothing has been mentioned about this fl in any of their material, so in my case I'm not getting even that 3 or 4 pieces of glass to make it a useable system for now...