Hi,
The information from Leica that I feel is grossly inaccurate is the advantage of the shallow well design of the CMOSIS sensor,
when applied to the S-camera. That design is very good for the large beam angles of wide angles for the M-series, but I would say that it is not needed for the S-cameras, as those are SLR designs having lenses with small beam angles.
There are also some claims on this thread that this design would eliminate vignetting on wide angles, which is also absolutely false. All wide angles vignette. It is a law of optics. Retrofocus lenses suffer a bit less from vignetting. Vignetting is in no way limited to digital sensors, centre spot filters were also used with film.
What the OP asks is why Leica is staying at 37.5 MP? The answers we get may be relevant for the Leica M, which has lens designs optimised for compactness, but are irrelevant for the S-series that are different designs intended for DSLRs.
On the other hand, Leica lenses are said to be extremely sharp. So we are combining sharp lenses with large pixels, which will not make the lenses justice and produce fake detail. Simply enough, small pixels are needed for good detail, especially with good lenses. The feather shots illustrate this quite clearly.
Small pixels give better details. Another way to see it is that even 30 year old lenses outresolve large pixel sensors enough to yield artefacts.
So, for some reasons Leica decided to use an upscaled CMOSIS MAX sensor for the Leica S. Doing that they have given up some resolution compared to their competition from Phase One (IQ-250 -- IQ-280), Leaf, Hasselblad and Pentax.
Now, that resolution may not be the most important thing. But, the limited resolution will results in less smooth rendition of fine detail, more aliasing artefacts, with very little benefits. There would be benefits with a digital back based on the CMOSIS design, but such a back has not been presented.
BTW I think that in general this thread would benefit from less snarky remarks and more constructive discussion about the new S
Regarding the value of the Leica S, I would say that I love live view and a good high ISO capability is good for many situations. The reservations about the Leica I have are most related to the large pixels. Staying with 37.5 MP puts the Leica a bit behind the competition, will cause aliasing artefacts (but not more than on the existing Leicas).
With some probability we are going to see 46-54MP DSLRs from Sony and possibly Canon next year, and there are a few great lenses around. So competition heats up. All these needs to be taken into account, at least if the camera is intended as a device for making pictures.
Best regards
Erik
Erik, I'm a photographer and I'm not scared by your technical posts, I enjoy reading them. Whether I understand everything you write and whether that's necessary for me in the so-called 'real world' is another matter Anyway, I appreciate your effort.
Question: What exactly did Leica say where that is information of dubious value?
BTW I think that in general this thread would benefit from less snarky remarks and more constructive discussion about the new S.