Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: Doug Peterson on December 18, 2009, 05:17:13 pm
-
Full disclosure: We are a Leica dealer.
At our December 3rd Leica Open House (and the morning after) we had an opportunity to put a production S2 through it's paces for the first time. While the firmware/software was not finalized and contained some minor glitches (which is standard for a camera not yet shipping) we were very glad to be able to collect real world samples. Among other tests we tested the 70mm and 180mm at each available aperture*.
Mirror up was used on a heavy tripod and the very neat self-timer-plus-MUP function was used whereby you push the shutter release and the mirror goes up, waits for mirror vibration to reduce and then takes the exposure. Aperture priority metering was used, and the images were captured as quickly as a careful workflow and the buffer allowed. The camera (i.e. the aperture) was controlled by the computer using Leica's Image Shuttle program (still in beta).
Focus in the image of the cruise ship is a bit closer to the camera than you'd expect (only visible at f/3.5-f/4.5) given that we used the AF on the cruise ship itself (and forced the camera to find focus starting completely out of focus).
*One of the firmware/software glitches we experienced was that when the 180mm lens was set to above f/13.5 that the metadata would be recorded correctly, the camera LCD, but the actual aperture opening would be f/13.5. So those files were excluded to avoid confusion.
Below is a summary of the tests. The full test and raw files can be found at our Leica Test Page (http://www.captureintegration.com/tests/leica/).
(http://captureintegration.com/download/S2/StreetAndCruiseShip_ApertureBracket-Summary-70mm.jpg) (http://www.captureintegration.com/tests/leica/)
(http://captureintegration.com/download/S2/StreetAndCruiseShip_ApertureBracket-Summary-180mm.jpg) (http://www.captureintegration.com/tests/leica/)
Doug Peterson ()
__________________
Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Leaf, Cambo, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870 *| *Cell: 740.707.2183
Newsletter: Read Latest or Sign Up (http://www.captureintegration.com/our-company/newsletters/)
RSS Feed: Subscribe (http://www.captureintegration.com/2008/08/11/rss-feeds/)
Buy Capture One at 10% off (http://www.captureintegration.com/phase-one/buy-capture-one/)
Personal Work (http://www.doug-peterson.com/)
-
Thanks Doug, that's very interesting. Not sure I followed what you were saying about the glitch on the 180 but the 70 looks as amazingly sharp to the corners as the Phase 80D. What are your impressions?
-
They look nice but would like to see images taken which push the DOF further, like looking across a landscape at ground-level. I would like to see the what the lenses do at f/8; from these tests it looks like the best aperture is f/6.7?
-
Friendly note:
Please do not use Capture One 5.0.0 to view these images. Use LR Beta 3 or Capture One 5.0.1 (or higher if it is available when you read this).
5.0.0 shows some strange artifacts.
Doug Peterson ()
__________________
Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Leaf, Cambo, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870 | Cell: 740.707.2183
Newsletter: Read Latest or Sign Up (http://www.captureintegration.com/our-company/newsletters/)
RSS Feed: Subscribe (http://www.captureintegration.com/2008/08/11/rss-feeds/)
Buy Capture One at 10% off (http://www.captureintegration.com/phase-one/buy-capture-one/)
Personal Work (http://www.doug-peterson.com/)
-
Full disclosure: We are a Leica dealer.
That's pretty cool that those Leica Lenses can change a Miami Scene to look like Solmes in January.
BC
-
Hah. Scene mode: dreary.
-
Doug - were you comparing using the Phase/Mamiya 80mm
or the Phase/Schenider LS 80mm?
have any test been done between the two 80mm lenses? I'd be interested in their wider open performance, for one.
-
Doug - were you comparing using the Phase/Mamiya 80mm
or the Phase/Schenider LS 80mm?
have any test been done between the two 80mm lenses? I'd be interested in their wider open performance, for one.
Just ran this test (80mm LS vs. 80mm D) last night. Hope to post tests later this week (with RAWs of course).
Doug Peterson ()
__________________
Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Leaf, Cambo, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870 | Cell: 740.707.2183
Newsletter: Read Latest or Sign Up (http://www.captureintegration.com/our-company/newsletters/)
RSS Feed: Subscribe (http://www.captureintegration.com/2008/08/11/rss-feeds/)
Buy Capture One at 10% off (http://www.captureintegration.com/phase-one/buy-capture-one/)
Personal Work (http://www.doug-peterson.com/)