Leica
Leica S3 Medium Format Camera
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The excellence of the Leica S3 is the result of an extremely well-thought-out overall system. All of its individual components are precisely matched to one another and interact in perfect harmony to create the inimitable Leica look with professional levels of performance.
Developed in close collaboration with pro photographers, the S3 expertly fulfills their particular needs – with its exceptional picture quality and outstanding flexibility, paired with uncomplicated handling and extreme ruggedness.
All components of the Leica S3 – from the lenses and the body to the sensor – are precisely matched to one another. The S3 and its lenses are manufactured with the utmost care in Germany.
This unique system has been created by Leica to fulfill only one purpose: maximizing creative freedom and ensuring that the decisive moment is never missed.
Sensor: Pictures with depth
The S3 features the next generation of the Leica ProFormat sensor, now with 64 megapixels of resolution. With dimensions of 30 x 45mm, it corresponds to the aspect ratio of the classic 35mm format, while offering a light sensitive surface area that is 56% larger. This change not only had a positive influence on image quality, but was also a significant factor in achieving the characteristic medium format look of pictures shot with the Leica S-System.
How light is handled by the system plays a decisive role in the creation of the visual signature and imaging quality: a larger sensor requires lenses with a wider image circle. They deliver not only the considerably narrower depth of field, typical for medium format lenses, but due to their constructional characteristics they do not need extremely large apertures to enable a large amount of light to fall on the sensor. At the same time, thanks to the larger sensor size, every single pixel is larger, captures more light and is thus able to process this extra light in an optimum manner.
The Leica ProFormat therefore represents an ideal balance between image quality and creative capabilities for a broad spectrum of photographic applications and uses the ideal synthesis of 35mm and traditional medium format.
The sensor of Leica S3 not only delivers impressive resolution, it also increases dynamic range to 15 stops and thus displays a previously unparalleled tonal range between shadows and highlights. Thanks to the high sensor sensitivity of up to ISO 50000, the Leica S3 need not depend on studio lighting. Whether on location, shooting a reportage project, or at weddings – whenever available light is to be used – the Leica S3 reveals its strengths and highlights the advantages of the larger format. In addition, the CMOS sensor enables video recording and Live View as added extra alternatives to the optical viewfinder image.
Autofocus: Fast to the point
The revised and improved predictive autofocus system of the Leica S3 always looks one step ahead. The lens and the camera act together as a perfect unit that takes the most direct way to a sharp image. The autofocus is designed to quickly and smoothly move to optimum image sharpness and can even incorporate corrections made in the very last fraction of a second. Essential for dynamic photography, it recognizes all movements of a subject throughout the focusing process.
Medium format video: Movie magic
With its Leica CMOS sensor and Maestro II series image processor, the Leica S3 has all the essential technology for shooting professional video footage in 4K cinema resolution and full-HD.
The full width of the sensor can be used at every resolution, which also lends video recordings the special and unique medium format look.
The exceptional image quality and the characteristic signature of the S-Lenses lends video recordings a unique cinematic flair. Thanks to selective focus and the characteristic Leica bokeh, moving pictures shot with the camera are just as breath-taking as stills.
The high quality of the recorded videos is retained by virtue of 4:2:2 color subsampling and files store in MOV format complete with time code. Thanks to Motion JPEG compression of the video files, each frame works on a stand-alone basis. Therefore, this format is ideal for film editing even before conversion. As an alternative to internal video recording with a resolution of up to cine-4K, the Leica S3 also offers an uncompressed stream in full-HD resolution that can be viewed on a connected monitor or recorded using an external HDMI recorder.
When shooting video with the Leica S3, users can not only choose from the entire range of S-Lenses, but can also mount lenses from other medium format systems with adapters. The Leica S3 offers various focusing aids for achieving optimum sharpness during manual focusing, which is typically employed when shooting films. Using Focus Peaking to display sharp areas of the image is, for instance, a practical aid for identifying points of optimum sharpness. The optional clipping display and the overlay of grids complete the range of tools available when recording videos. For moving pictures, 48 kHz,16-bit stereo sound can be recorded with the integrated microphone or an off-camera microphone with automatic or manual level adjustment.
Lenses: Pure precision
The lenses are crucial when it comes to the quality of any camera system. All S-System lenses have been built to achieve nothing less than maximum optical performance. Perfect reproduction of colors and skin tones, unrivaled contrast rendition, precisely defined planes of focus and harmonious bokeh; the image quality is always perfect regardless of the aperture or focusing distance.
Leica draws on more than a century of expertise, employs high-quality materials and naturally utilizes cutting-edge manufacturing technologies that go hand-in-hand with precise manual craftsmanship. This gives rise to lenses that push the boundaries of the highest technical performance levels.
Simply by changing a setting on the main switch of the Leica S3 users can decide before every shot whether they wish to use the metal-bladed focal plane shutter integrated into the camera or the central shutter in the lens. With its fastest shutter speed of 1/1000 s, the Leica central shutter available for many S-Lenses offers photographers significantly greater creative leeway when working with professional flash systems for the suppression of ambient light or as fill lighting when using larger apertures on location. By way of comparison, the fastest sync speed offered by the focal plane shutter is 1/125 s. The central shutter thus expands the photographer’s creative scope by no less than three stop increments.
In case photographers already own medium format equipment, the Leica S-Adapters offer existing lenses a new lease of life. The Leica S3 masters the electronic settings of most third-party lenses such as autofocus and aperture at least as well as the systems for which they were designed. It raises the resulting image quality, however, to the level of a state-of-the-art digital medium-format camera.
DNG
The image data captured by the Leica S3 can be saved in the future-proof DNG format (Digital Negative) – the only standardized cross-brand format that is not tied to a specific RAW data converter and can be read by the majority of image processing software packages. This means that the Leica S3 can be seamlessly integrated into every existing working environment.
DNG format not only allows the saving of all image data with lossless compression, but also all metadata for each exposure – for instance the focusing distance and the aperture. All data can be saved either to an SD card (SDXC), a CF card (UDMA7) or directly to a tethered Windows or Mac computer.
Workflow
The Leica S3 provides a free choice of workflow. Perfectly matched to the needs of the camera, the Leica Image Shuttle software ensures an efficient and professional photographic workflow in which all relevant image properties such as subject composition, framing, sharpness and exposure can be viewed and assessed on larger monitor screens.
The Leica S3 features a Lemo® USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface that enables fastest-possible and stable transfer of data to a computer, simultaneously providing tethered shooting capability. When used in combination with iOS or Android devices with the Leica FOTOS 2.0 app, the Leica S3 slips seamlessly into a mobile workflow.
Alternatively, tethered shooting workflows can also be realized with other software solutions. Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® Classic is fully equipped to serve as a control center for all digital image processing needs. Everything has been thought of from importing files, sorting (including definition of keywords) and image processing, to exporting files and sharing pictures by email or on the web. The extremely powerful digital image processing tools in Lightroom® Classic are perfectly designed for processing images for further use. Lightroom® Classic offers the particular advantage of a non-destructive RAW workflow that leaves the original data untouched and stores all edits in a separate file. A new file with all edits applied is only created in the export phase, so there is no risk of overwriting the original data when creating several versions of the same image. Classic digital image processing software such as Adobe® Photoshop® can be integrated into the workflow for further processing.
Controls and handling: Logical and intuitive
An intuitive operating concept that relies on the absolute minimum number of control elements has been created for the Leica S3. The two central control elements of the Leica S3 are the click wheel and the five-way joystick, both of which are conveniently positioned for operation by the photographer’s right thumb. Through these functions, the photographer controls the aperture and navigates through the menus on the rear display, which is also surrounded by four buttons.
The camera’s main power switch also doubles as a shutter selector, allowing the photographer to choose between the focal plane and central shutter. The camera’s ergonomically designed integrated handgrip keeps it steady in the photographer’s hands and its relatively low weight and optimum center of gravity ensure fatigue-free photography.
Maestro II Processor: Designed to fulfill the need for speed
The electronic components of the Leica S3 are designed to enable maximum data transfer speeds. Thanks to more than 9,800 parallel D/A converters, image data from the sensor is read in the shortest possible times without any loss of quality.
They are then processed by the Maestro II processor, which has been specially developed for Leica.
The 2 GB buffer memory ensures that all links in the processing chain can work as quickly as possible without ever sitting idle. Despite the high resolution of the 64-megapixel sensor, consistently high data transfer rates enable a shooting frequency of up to 3 frames per second. The processor installed in the Leica S3 ensures optimum noise suppression and ensures that the camera responds instantaneously to all commands.
The Essentials:
- New 64mp medium format sensor for unprecedented image quality from Leica S
- Lenses–4K video recording across the full width of the sensor for the signature Leica look in video
- ISO range of 100 - 50,000 for working in any lighting scenario
- Dual shutter system with Focal Plane Shutter or Central Shutter lens options
- Rugged and weather-sealed build for use in the field and withstanding the elements
- Tethered shooting workflow options for use in the professional studio
- Leica FOTOS connectivity for mobile editing solutions on iPad, iPhone, and Android.
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Product information
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The location of each item is indicated online. For convenience, you can choose to pick up your item at any of our stores. Once purchased, the item should be ready for pick up within 4 hours at the designated store, although this might vary depending on the store's busyness and time of day. We request that you wait for a notification from us confirming that your order is ready for pick up, to ensure the best service.
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We offer a concierge trade-in program for the gear you'd like to upgrade, cross-grade, or simply pass on to a new owner. This enables you to acquire the tools that fit your specific needs. The easiest way to trade is to bring your gear into one of our stores and meet with us in person. However, we also accommodate those who can't visit our stores. Our online process is both personal and simple.
To begin, fill out the form on our Trade // Sell page with the details of the fine photographic equipment or watches you'd like to trade in. One of our team members will then contact you to confirm any details we might need for an accurate estimate. We will provide an estimate that doesn’t only look at the value of your trade in but the whole picture of where you want to go. If the estimate is satisfactory to you, we can provide a shipping label for you to ship your gear to one of our stores for a final inspection and store credit. Finally, we apply that credit towards your new gear!