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LuLa Review of S2 is available

Dale Allyn

New member
I was going to post it a while ago, but it's kind of an "egg shell" topic these days. ;)

The article is pretty good. The video is pleasant to watch. It's a calm review over-all (which I appreciated). :)
 

David K

Workshop Member
Good review and certainly worth reading for someone considering the S2. The only thing I found surprising was that Michael only got 125 shots out of the battery (albeit with chimping). David F and I shot the camera all day long and it still had more than a half charge remaining.
 
The comment on the battery puzzled me also. I picked up the S2 after Marc William shot 170 frames (as I recall) and I shot an additional 307 frames with at least 1/4 battery life remaining at the end of the day.

Mark
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Micheal Reichman has published his review of the Leica S2 here

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/s2.shtml

I haven't read the review as of yet, but thought I would post it for those interested. I may be crazy for posting anything about the S2 with the way it stirs things up, but what the heck.

Mark
It should NOT stir anything up if the information that is presented and posted is a objective view. And that my friends is the bottom line. When things are misrepresented and false statements are made than you have issues. The warnings have been sent out and dealers WILL abide by them. Otherwise they are NOT welcomed here. END OF STORY
 

PeterA

Well-known member
Yes the tethered speed factor is a real concern for studio shooters ( got to ask yourself why USB vs firewire??) and then also ask yourself why proprietary cable which is definately a consumable item in any MFD tethered shooters inventory - definately a negative relative to other manufacturers products. Add teh fact that teh delivery schedule for a lot of lenses and especially the central shutter lenses is ..umm sometime in the future + another studio shooters bump in the road.

Second negative(s) lack of viewfinder information and ordinary outdoors OLD display. When shooting digitla backs - simple EV control is mandatory - especially in outdoor situations.

Sure balance this against a whole bunch of camera body specific positives..

Then note what many of us have been saying in here - back-up body ?? Off camera use of back??

Boils down to a hefty price premium for atthe margin les flexibility balanced against superiror ergonomics offset by new system issues ( lens availability/software etc etc etc)

it is a tough call and certainly not a no brainer for anyone considering a switch or even a new buyer.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
From what Leica told me a couple weeks ago they are still working on the tethered software and it is not optimized yet. From what I gather that is all it does is tethered . You can shoot to hot folders in both LR and C1 but from past experience that took about 4 or 5 seconds from shot to preview. Dedicated programs and backs like C1 , Phocus and Leaf Capture run the 1-2 seconds shots to preview from what I have read. I have not tried Leaf capture or Phocus but I hear they run good ( David G and Yair can comment further on this ). Hopefully by the time I get the S2 things will get better with the Leica program. Have not read the review yet so not sure what he used for his review.

Obviously with MF tethered is pretty darn important asset so hopefully that will all work out.
 

carstenw

Active member
Yeah, I was also disappointed by the tethering speed. That is a deal-killer for the exact market I thought the S2 was going to be most successful in.

I see why Leica went with USB though. Apple is killing off Firewire, which they were the primary backer off for years. I never liked USB, but if in one or two years you cannot buy a computer with Firewire then this starts to look like a good move. I guess they were betting on this being the better choice for the future.

I didn't see anything else in the movie which I thought was an issue for its intended market.
 

tjv

Active member
Seems like a good, balanced review to me. Predictable and valid cons as well as pros. It will be good to see the future unfold...
 

Christopher

Active member
Yes most of the stuff looks really nice, another thing I did not like that much is the viewfinder coverage. I think I would just expect a lot more than spending 18k on a camera. I mean that is probably one point why I would prefer a 1DsMk3 over a 5DMk2.
 

carstenw

Active member
Yes, Michael's statement about 93-95% coverage is at odds with Leica's claim of 96%, I think. 100% would be perfect, of course.
 

vieri

Well-known member
Yes, Michael's statement about 93-95% coverage is at odds with Leica's claim of 96%, I think. 100% would be perfect, of course.
Agreed. On such a camera, not having 100% VF coverage makes little sense, and it's among the disappointing things with it. High ISO might be better with the final firmware (not sure by how much though), tethering will likely be better with the final FW (and possibly by some margin), but the VF coverage will obviously stay that way - I wonder why Leica made such a choice in a camera meant to be the best in its class... :confused:

EDIT: may be because it is the only one in its class? :D Competition always helps, and I think that if some other manufacturer will pick up on the "DSLR on steroid" concept we'll see a much better S3 to battle back... Now that I think of it, if no other manufacturer will pick up on the concept, we might never see an S3 after all...
 

georgl

New member
If I understood it correctly, the viewfinder is not 100% because the sensor is positioned within the calibration process and therefore could theoretically be positioned outside the 100% frame (= something won't be captured that was shown in the viewfinder).

Thanks for the review, I'm sure under studio conditions (f5,6-f11 without corners) current (lens-)systems are good enough, a nice open aperture corner comparison would have been nice.

Now we need final firmware and some nice profiles for LR and C1.

I'm a little bit disappointed about the ridiculous statement from Leica about the delay when they're still working on firmware - I wonder who made this statement (let me guess: marketing, not engineers)... Credibility is crucial and Leica should keep their marketing-people on a short leash as they did in the past.
 

vieri

Well-known member
Yes that is true, eSata would have been a nice choice, even if unrealistic ;-)
Christopher, while eSATA is faster than FW and USB, it's connectors are something that I definitely wouldn't like to have to deal with during a shooting. The connection is so flimsy that is seems to me that they would unplug just by looking at them... :D
 

Christopher

Active member
I know what you mean, but this is NOT up to the cable but the device. I have both. Some it really falls out when you touch it, but I also have a few drives which I can hang from the eSATA cable, which I can't say about USB or FW.
 
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