Leica S2 Photos

November 11, 2009 | Mark Goldstein | Comment |

Exclusive! A gallery of full-size photos from the Leica S2, a 37 megapixel, £16,000 / $22,000 camera that launches in the UK next month.

The Leica S2 is one of the most anticipated cameras from the venerable German manufacturer, ever. Offering the handling of a DSLR camera combined with the image quality of medium format, the 37 megapixel, £16,000 / $22,000, 75Mb DNG file-producing S2 is finally released next month in the UK (January in the USA).

We were given the opportunity to test the S2 out at Leica’s Mayfair store in the heart of London earlier today, and to share the full-resolution images with you. There are 23 JPEG files taken indoors and out in our Leica S2 gallery, all at 7488x4976 pixels at either ISO 160 or 640.

Conditions in wintry London were typically overcast, rather limiting opportunities outside, with an ISO speed of 640 only just allowing the S2 to be hand-held whilst avoiding camera shake (Leica didn’t allow us to use a faster ISO speed, as the cameras were still pre-production, albeit almost final quality).

Indoors was much more promising, with the S2 really shining in its true home, the studio environment. With the ISO locked at ISO 160 and aperture set to f11, the 37 megapixel files were pin-sharp with astonishing levels of detail, using both the 70mm and 180mm lenses that Leica will be launching along with the S2.

As for the handling, I was quickly at home after a quick demo from the Leica experts. The soft-button interface is intuitive once tried out, although it doesn’t provide very quick access to key settings like ISO speed as you have to press a couple of buttons and scroll through the menu system. The S2 definitely lives up to its DSLR-like billing though, being surprisingly light and portable, certainly no heavier or more cumbersome than a Nikon / Canon pro DSLR.

So here is our gallery of Leica S2 photos - find out just what £16,000 / $22,000 really buys you…

Leica S2 JPEG Images

Sample RAW Images

The Leica S2 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Leica RAW (DNG) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

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