Leica’s New Medium Format DSLR

Leica’s step into the medium format business was big — it was expensive, but I think everyone appreciated a medium format, SLR-style camera not much different from your Nikon or Canon, except for the incredible quality. Today, we have news of the Leica S: the newest iteration of the DSLR line-up that follows the same simple lettering scheme as the Leica M announced earlier, replacing the S2.

Okay, so maybe it isn’t quite medium format; but the sensor is almost 60% larger than a 35mm sensor — and that counts for a whole lot more than just ‘something.’ For $21,950, here’s what you get:

We know that the 37.5MP sensor is an improved version of the previous one, allowing for supposedly noise-free 100-1600ISO images. Additionally, the camera features its own shutter capable of shutter speeds up to 1/4000, but the body is also able to use the S lens system’s internal shutters to enable flash synchronization up to 1/1000.

Naturally, the body is weather-sealed (against both dust and water — though I suspect only through splashes of water such as rain, of course) and there’s no anti-aliasing filter for moire, which provides us with sharper images overall.

A few new additions, however, include internal GPS, improved predictive autofocusing, and three new S-system lenses including the Super-Elmar-S 24 mm f/3.5 ASPH, Vario-Elmar-S 30-90 mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH, and TS-APO-ELMAT-S 120mm f/5.6 ASPH, the first tilt-shift lens in the system.

If you have the money, this is the DSLR to get…don’t you think?

Via LeicaRumors.com