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S006 -> s007

Paratom

Well-known member
I wondered who of the crowd here plans to upgrade to the S007?

The higher ISO capabilities would expand the areas where I could use the S, the speed also wouldnt hurt (even though I dont really have the feeling the S006 to be too slow for what I do most of the times).

The most interesting point for me would be the question how color compares to the S006 (I mean-is it on par?), besides the question if it is worth to spend so much money again.

Looking at REID-Reviews it looks high ISO is still not on the level of the Leica M 240
 

tjv

Active member
I'm surprised to hear that about the high ISO. I didn't think the 240 was very highly regarded in that area, so if the S is not as good as that I'd say it's a bit disappointing. Other previews / sales-pitch reviews seem promising though, although I guess we'll have to wait until Lightroom is updated with proper support to see how much better it performs with proper processing support to know for sure.
 

anGy

Member
I was immediately very tempted by the upgrade (I'm an S2 user). The announcement was very appealing: 15eV of DR, usable 6400isos, well implemented live view, better AF, better shutter, 4k video. This should solve most weaknesses of the S2. A great improvement.
Then my head started to think about this investment and I'm not too sure anymore.
Mainly, all the current drawbacks of my S2 are no showstoppers at all:
AF is slow but MF is great with the MF viewfinder mirror.
DR is only 12 eV (following DXOMark) but I prefer the noisy but natural recovered shadows of the S2 compared f.i. to a Sony A7rII (that I purchased and sold 3 weeks later...).
High iso are not good but I never use the S2 in bad light conditions (still have a Sony A7r as back-up).

But it's also true I would like sometimes being able to better use the AF. AF-C is too slow and AF-S less accurate than MF. There is room for improvement and apparently the S007 will perform better than the S006 that is already performing a bit better than the S2.

Higher usable iso can also solve the exposure triangle: the S is great for handholding but the DoF is shallow. There is quite often not enough light to get a safe f8 @ 1/250s shot at iso 160 or even iso 320. Being able to use iso 800 or 1600 could save the situation.
It is sometimes more difficult to make an accurate manual focussing on some subjects/paterns, live view could help then.
Live view for tripod shot + DoF indication on the OLED screen is a great feature for focus stacking in landscape f.i.

So, I need to be 100% sure that the IQ at base iso of the S007 is at least as good as the S2. Don't want to be disappointed there, don't want to wait for a firmware upgrade or a better Lightroom profile before being sure of that.

When the IQ has been proven I think I will not be able to resist the temptation to upgrade.
 
M

mjr

Guest
Morning

I am on the edge! I love the 006, best camera I have ever used and it will still produce incredible images tomorrow! My 007 arrived at the dealer on Friday and should be with me next week, I don't want to sell the 006 so would be keeping both. I have a shoot end of next week for a client with 20 staff who wants bright, ambient light portraits in their office, no getting round it, the 006 is out of its comfort zone for that, the 007 could be perfect so I will try it for those sorts of jobs and see how it works at ISO800, if it's good then it will expand what I can do comfortably.

What concerns me is being a first adopter, this is business and I can't afford to test cameras for Leica and provide feedback, I need it to work. I've had some nightmares recently with lens purchases so I'm holding on to my cash until I know it does what it is supposed to!

Reviews are good, I love the size and weight, if it performs as described then it will be the last camera I buy for a while.

Mat
 

Paratom

Well-known member
Morning

I am on the edge! I love the 006, best camera I have ever used and it will still produce incredible images tomorrow! My 007 arrived at the dealer on Friday and should be with me next week, I don't want to sell the 006 so would be keeping both. I have a shoot end of next week for a client with 20 staff who wants bright, ambient light portraits in their office, no getting round it, the 006 is out of its comfort zone for that, the 007 could be perfect so I will try it for those sorts of jobs and see how it works at ISO800, if it's good then it will expand what I can do comfortably.

What concerns me is being a first adopter, this is business and I can't afford to test cameras for Leica and provide feedback, I need it to work. I've had some nightmares recently with lens purchases so I'm holding on to my cash until I know it does what it is supposed to!

Reviews are good, I love the size and weight, if it performs as described then it will be the last camera I buy for a while.

Mat
Mat, I am looking forward to you r findings.
The last sentence:"it will be the last camera I buy for a while" is something I also often think and 2 years later I get tempted again.
 
M

mjr

Guest
I agree, I have lost count of how many times I have bought my last camera!

The key for me is that if the 007 wasn't available, I would not be changing the 006, it's that good for what I do. Compromises are based solely on high ISO use, something I do quite a lot of as I teach aurora workshops in the winter months. The 006 is actually not bad for a ccd camera but still, I'd like better. If the 007 doesn't do what I want then it will be returned and I will carry on as I am, I don't need more pixels at all, I can print bigger than most people can display already so not missing anything with less than 50mp, this is just such a good system, great times for us all!

Mat
 

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
The most interesting point for me would be the question how color compares to the S006 (I mean-is it on par?), besides the question if it is worth to spend so much money again.

The review and trip report from David Farkas convinced me that the color and DR compares and may exceed that from the 006:

http://www.reddotforum.com/content/2015/09/leica-s-typ-007-review/

http://www.reddotforum.com/content/...ture-through-iceland-with-the-leica-s-typ007/

The price reduction makes it a bit difficult to say the upgrade is not worth it.

Especially for those with a decent selection of S glass.

Bob
 

PeterA

Well-known member
The review and trip report from David Farkas convinced me that the color and DR compares and may exceed that from the 006:

http://www.reddotforum.com/content/2015/09/leica-s-typ-007-review/

http://www.reddotforum.com/content/...ture-through-iceland-with-the-leica-s-typ007/

The price reduction makes it a bit difficult to say the upgrade is not worth it.

Especially for those with a decent selection of S glass.

Bob
But Bob - it isn't a Sony are you mad?!!:ROTFL:
 

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
But Bob - it isn't a Sony are you mad?!!:ROTFL:
Peter,

It is extremely quiet on this side of the forum ... give me a real RAW and a decent battery and I might consider going back
to Sony as a travel camera ... but my D-Lux 109 does 4K has better color and is smaller. The new A7s II may have better color
with S Log 3 for video but I spent too much time in Premiere messing with weird color shifts in the original A7s (not stills) to
have much love for them.

And now that Zeiss has emerged from their long sleep and is producing lenses worth their name it is hard to tolerate the marginal
lens selection for the Sony brand...adapters only do so much ... very marginal for AF and if I am to adapt a lens it will be F mount.

Bought a real video camera this summer ... a Canon ... and am stunned at how good the color and workflow is ...

So yes mad ... but seems there are a few of us on the fringes left in this forum and a few others on this site. Not flavor of the month.

It does point out how much froth is driving this market ... a new $3K camera every six months ... imagine if that were invested in glass that
could be used on any camera. Guess my age and lack of tolerance for parting with hard earned capital for a paltry short term affair is showing.

But you know all that ... :cool:

Bob
 

DMarc

New member
I wondered who of the crowd here plans to upgrade to the S007?
I upgraded last week and posted some feedback on the l-camera forum, under the title "S007 -- attempt at balance feedback": http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/250012-s007-attempt-at-balanced-feedback/

The only issue I see with the new camera is spending again a significant amount of money. For the rest, it's frankly all very good and I could not be happier.

The main differences to the S006 are the increased speed, the higher ISO (two stops realistically, but makes a big difference) and Live View (very neat). IQ, colors,... for sure not inferior to what was delivered by my S006.

Might also be worth noting that tethered shooting is not yet available (I understand that software updates are coming).

Marc
 

atanabe

Member
I am in a different camp, S2 -> s007. I have had my S2 since 2011 and have been through the teething pains of a new camera and the joys of the superb image quality from the camera and lenses. I have dabbled in the black art of alternative Hasselblad lenses both V and H on the S2 and always come back to the Leica pedigree. The S2 has been a marvelous camera for capturing memorable images in my life. While the specifications of the new 007, higher frame rate and higher ISO intrigue me, my main use for this platform is for landscape work, at base ISO, on a tripod. Is the platform built for street photography, no, too large and intrusive. Is it a sports camera, no long lens support from Leica, alternate long lenses are a hit or miss proposition. So a faster frame rate will not buy me much nor the higher ISO, DR is all about the right light for the subject ie patience is a virtue.
So in my opinion, I will keep my S2 till it dies a glorious death as the value currently on the used trade in market is about the same as the sales tax that I paid when I purchased it. I will instead fill in my lens lineup with the money I saved from not buying up to the latest technology.
 

baudolino

Active member
Upgraded last week, from an S2, and have shot about 400 images so far, so very initial impressions, subject to future revisions (and with the obvious qualification that I am comparing the 007 with the S2, not with a 006) :

Operational aspects:
-----------------------
(1) Camera is quicker for sure overall but could be even quicker to start and/or wake up from standby, if I had my choice (fast action is often over before the camera is ready to shoot).
(2) AF although quicker, seems to go through more iterations, back and forth. I normally use the camera in MF mode, with the back joystick/AF button set to perform AF-on and, for some reason, I think I miss more shots to focusing error than with my S2 (which is super slow but super accurate). I am sure the 007 works fine, I just need to get more experience with it.
(3) I got confused initially by the AF button/joystick seemingly "freezing" or "going to sleep" even when the camera as a whole did not enter standby mode. I was told by the Leica rep today that this was because I had image preview set up to 5secs by default and, while in the image preview mode, the joystick was programmed to do something else than initiate AF. I don't know, have to try this again - never had this "issue" with the S2 but there the button did not have the additional joystick functionality. For sure, when I half-depress the shutter button on the 007, the joystick comes back on with the required AF functionality, so the rep is most likely right. Solution seems to be to switch off image preview completely.
(4) When the GPS is switched off, the camera writes a "zero zero" position in the metadata. Whoever coded this probably did not realise that this is an actual location somewhere in the Atlantic ocean, south of Ghana, so that's where all my pictures taken with the 007 so far show up in the LR Map module (a bit silly; I hope they'll fix it soon).
(5) Had two corrupted files when using a Lexar 400x SD card; was told to use a faster Sandisk 95MB/s SD card. No problems with Lexar CF card (1000x speed).

Image quality:
(1) High ISO is welcome; there is a bit of noise at ISO800 but can be fixed easily in LR. For the moment, I feel comfortable using the camera up to ISO1600 but it's still early days. Having said this, I still really like the grain from the S2 sensor shot at ISO640 when accurately exposed.
(2) In bright lighting conditions, I set the 007 to underexpose by 0.5-1 stop as it seems to be a bit too eager to "expose to the right" when left to its own devices (in multi-field metering, aperture priority mode).
(3) Automatic white balance is usually correct. I plan to generate my own profiles using the Colorchecker passport to see if they differ from the Adobe Standard (when I did this for the M240 I got more saturated blues but could not see any difference between Adobe profiles and mine with the S2). With some images from the 007 I get the impression of a slight yellow/green tint, on the other hand, many other images are accurate (suspect it depends on the lighting situation, whether I use a polariser etc.).
(4) Images show same amount of detail, with perhaps very slightly less "bite" at base ISO than from the S2 (easy to adjust to taste using the clarity slider). I have read someone's report claiming the opposite and don't want to dwell on this too much before I have shot with the camera more and compared it with the S2 under controlled conditions.

Overall I think this is a worthwhile upgrade for someone who often shoots handheld in available light and occasionally needs video and live view. In a studio, in my experience, the S2's only serious limitation is the small buffer (but this was fixed in the S006). If most of my shooting were in a studio, with strobes, and I had an S006, I probably would not rush to upgrade. I will now shoot with both cameras side by side for a while before I decide if I sell my trusty beat-up S2 or keep it as a spare. It still amazes me every time I look at the images it produces. I am excited about the 007 and expect it to produce even better images than the S2 for me, once I've learned to use it properly, thanks to its already evident broader "performance envelope". Last but not least, the support from my dealer (Leicashop Vienna) as well as from the factory has been exemplary so far.
 

Paratom

Well-known member
....

Overall I think this is a worthwhile upgrade for someone who often shoots handheld in available light and occasionally needs video and live view. In a studio, in my experience, the S2's only serious limitation is the small buffer (but this was fixed in the S006). If most of my shooting were in a studio, with strobes, and I had an S006, I probably would not rush to upgrade. I will now shoot with both cameras side by side for a while before I decide if I sell my trusty beat-up S2 or keep it as a spare. It still amazes me every time I look at the images it produces. I am excited about the 007 and expect it to produce even better images than the S2 for me, once I've learned to use it properly, thanks to its already evident broader "performance envelope". Last but not least, the support from my dealer (Leicashop Vienna) as well as from the factory has been exemplary so far.
Thank you a lot for sharing your initial experiences and impressions.
I think Leica should make available more DEMO-S 007. It seems not so easy to get a test camera for some days at the moment, even though they are available to buy. I don't want to buy before handling and checking one out.
You are not the first one who says AF is faster but with less accurancy. If this is really the case then I am a bit concerned.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Most photographers considering the S007 have the means to acquire and use several systems . Myself ...I have maintained a system for street ( Leica M s ) , a systems for sports (Nikon ) and a system for maximum quality (Leica S) . Most anything I shoot can benefit from the IQ of the Leica S system but its not easy and too often I select “easy’ over “best” quality .

I ve used my S cameras for landscape ,studio, sport and street with varying degrees of success. It can work superbly in landscape and with some restrictions in the other three . When you get a capture you are proud of ...you have a winner ...but you hit ratio is lower ....even in studio or with strobes . You have less DOF to work with , a lower practical limit on ISO and a inferior AF system to the professional DSLR bodies . It takes more discipline and technique to achieve best possible quality .

If you have an 006 S and an M240 .....you know almost everything about the S 007 . First the files will be like the M240 files only larger and improved by the S lenses (which are generally equal or better and a perfectly matched set ) . The larger and faster processor (Maestro) can produce better quality out of the camera than the M240 ...so I would expect the 007 files to look like superb M240 files .

The color will be different but its strongly affected by the profiling and post processing software . How much ...shoot a color chart in daylight and see for yourself . The CMOS files start out with a bias toward yellow/green and the CCD files start closer to magenta/blue . The CMOS files have a linear tone curse with a wider dynamic range ...the CCD files have a more film like S curve with a lower DR overall . Of course Leica tries to make them look similar and as the profiles get better they can become very close . Look at the files with the embedded profiles in Photoshop .

More thoughts later as my appointment is here .
 

Paratom

Well-known member
Most photographers considering the S007 have the means to acquire and use several systems . Myself ...I have maintained a system for street ( Leica M s ) , a systems for sports (Nikon ) and a system for maximum quality (Leica S) . Most anything I shoot can benefit from the IQ of the Leica S system but its not easy and too often I select “easy’ over “best” quality .
this describes exactly what happens with me. I wonder how much the better iso and faster camera S007 would increase a) the keepter rate and to also choose the S more often.
 
M

mjr

Guest
I think I'm the opposite! I kept a D800 alongside lots of older cameras as a backup to the S but never ever use it. This morning I had 4 hours of shooting 20 business portraits for a client in an office with rubbish light and knowing I should take the D800 I didn't, just took a couple of strobes and the 006. I'm hoping the 007 will arrive tomorrow afternoon as I have 2 more interior location shoots end of the week, I really want to try it out without using strobes.

Have you ordered one yet Paratom?

Mat
 

Paratom

Well-known member
I think I'm the opposite! I kept a D800 alongside lots of older cameras as a backup to the S but never ever use it. This morning I had 4 hours of shooting 20 business portraits for a client in an office with rubbish light and knowing I should take the D800 I didn't, just took a couple of strobes and the 006. I'm hoping the 007 will arrive tomorrow afternoon as I have 2 more interior location shoots end of the week, I really want to try it out without using strobes.

Have you ordered one yet Paratom?

Mat
I am tempted, its available, but I first wanted to have my hands on one for some time, which seems not happen before Sept 26.
Let us hear what you think when you have the 007 in your hands. I know its an old discussion but I am still concerned about the CCD vs CMOS IQ.
Tom
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Continued ...006 t0 007

At base ISO ...I still prefer the M9 color to the M240 ...both are excellent . the differences can be insignificant if (1) you establish a custom white balance (exprodisc?) (2) built a relevant custom DNG profile for Photoshop or LR and (3) establish a preset that adjusts the tone curve to your liking . The 006 to 007 comparison I expect to be similar . I expect I will prefer the color and tone curve from the 006 ....it may not be better ...its a preference for a certain aesthetic .

Speed improvements I believe will be nice but not meaningful for real action ..what would I use 3.5 FPS for ...(from working out the Nikons 5FPS is slow slow slow ..when compared to 9FPS ...and 9FPS isn t enough to expect FPS to catch peak action ...you still have to anticipate and time the sequence ). Faster AF of course would be nice but using MF ...I try to be extra careful in getting the focus right ...slightly off ...no way .

An example ..the Q is fast and accurate enough to shoot street wide open at F1.7...I can t imagine the large S lenses can be driven that quickly .

Higher ISO is the one area you can be pretty sure about . The CCD sensor loses a lot above ISO400 ...some subject matter is fine ....other times unacceptable . The CMOS on a M240 is excellent at 800 and Ok at 1600 ....so I expect 1 1/2 stops of improvement in ISO performance . This is the area that could expand the use of the 007 ..some interior work ,better handheld when you need a faster shutter speed .

So I could definitely see a slight shift in my work to utilize MF more ....but I am going to wait a while as would not benefit enough to justify either the cost or the 100 hours it would take to update my workflow ....
 
M

mjr

Guest
Evening

I was having one of those mornings, after yesterdays nice corporate portraiture job, I found myself knee deep in muddy ditch photographing fibre-optic cable being fired through the ground, and it was raining. Anyway, got a text to say my 007 had arrived so picked it up on the way home, charged the battery and had a walk about to see what's what.

I'm not a reviewer, but have some initial thoughts. First, it feels really nice, the position of the dial on top being closer to index finger makes it even easier to use although I had no issue with the 006. The lens mount is really tight, feels much tighter than the 006, may just need to bed in a bit. The most striking thing is how incredibly quick it is, I didn't feel the 006 was a slow camera, not up to D4's etc but sort of appropriate for the camera if that makes sense, everything is faster on the 007. Image review is very very quick, zooming in to 100% instant, a big difference. Focussing is a lot faster, I walked around in fairly good light this evening, no hunting at all even with strong backlit subjects, very fast, very accurate, a big improvement.

Live view works great but I didn't use it properly, just had a play. A few things I need to look at more, I love the 006 being in aperture priority when you put shutter on auto, then at any time you can just turn the shutter speed and it goes instantly in to manual mode, that doesn't happen on the 007, have to select mode which I'm sure I will get used to but doesn't feel natural like the 006. There are a few bugs I think, on a few occasions I would take a shot, then immediately change aperture but the camera wouldn't respond until i pressed the shutter release button again, even with image review off. Second thing I don't understand but will look in to, I like the depth of field scale when you half press the shutter button but it isn't live, if you move the focussing ring you have to let go of the shutter button and repress, seems like it should really work as you focus so you can see what's going on as you are doing it, if that makes sense. Apart from that, in use it's great for a first go, I will use it a lot over the next couple of weeks and then decide if it will do the job, I'm feeling like it will. Images will take some time to get used to, they have a lot of flexibility in post, I'm not a big fan of lifting shadows a lot, I like mine deep but there is a huge amount of recovery in these files and very clean.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not a reviewer, just look at how things work for me which takes some time so sorry if this is a bit crap!

Have a nice evening.

Mat
 

kimyeesan

Member
My normal dealer is offering a trade in option for my S006 to S007. I am not sure whether I should make the switch. My S006 is still almost new with less than 2000 shutters. Perhaps I should wait till all the bugs has been fixed with the firmware so that I won't get any grief from using an obviously great design but unfinished firmware product.
 
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