These days, digital
photography has encompassed virtually all aspects of daily life. Film has been forgotten by all but a
dedicated few. Digital photography,
along with the ever increasing automation of our cameras, has resulted in
pictures being taken with a frequency and multitude never seen before.
Leica has become an
important player on the field of digital cameras with products that have to be
considered at the forefront of digital photography, along with the names of
many of their competitors. Yet few are
aware of the development of digital cameras. It seems as if they suddenly
appeared out of nothing, destined to take over the world of photography.
Digital photography is a
rather recent development, one that took substantially less time than the
development of photography in the 19th century.
The first digital electronic camera was shown in 1975. It was designed by Steven Sasson, an engineer
at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY. It
used a CCD (charge coupled device) as a sensor.
The camera was a huge, 8 pound device, devoid of any portability. But it did render digital images of 0.01
megapixels in black and white, using a cassette tape for storage. The first images took 23 seconds for each
exposure. To view the images, the data
was read off the tape and displayed on a TV monitor.
A portable digital camera
would not appear until 1981. This was
the first marketed digital camera, the Sony MAVICA. The name Mavica stood for MAgnetic VIdeo
CAmera. It too used a CCD as a sensor,
but it produced an analog video signal in the NTSC format at a resolution of
570 × 490 pixels (0.28 megapixels). The
color images were stored as still pictures on 2” magnetic discs which could be
viewed with the help of a special playback unit on a television screen or they
could be made into color photographs on a printer which was developed later on.
The magnetic disks were
called “Mavipack” with a recording capacity of 50 color pictures. The discs could be erased, reused, and
removed from the camera at any given time, with no threat to their longevity or
dependability.
The camera also allowed to
be used as a motion picture video camera when coupled to a Betamax videotape
recorder. When the camera became
available on the photographic market it sold for $646.00 which was a huge
amount of money in 1981.
Of course image quality
was very low and the camera was incapable to compete with analog film
cameras. Film would still rule supreme
for a few more years until the digital photography revolution set in. I think it is safe to say that most
photographers and other members of the photographic industry were surprised how
quickly digital photography replaced film.
It was this incredibly fast change that spelled the demise of many well
established photographic companies.
Kodak, Agfa and Ilford, just to mention a few, have all but disappeared
from the market and are alive today by name only. Even Leica ran into considerable difficulties
until the company was saved by Dr. Andreas Kaufmann. Leica’s success with their digital (and
analog) products has to be considered one of the photographic success stories
of recent years and we can look forward to more exciting new items from Leica
Camera AG.
Leica S1, the first
digital camera from Leica
THE 26 MEHAPIXEL LEICA S1
Leica has often been
criticized for not having paid enough attention to digital photography, that a
few years ago they fell hopelessly behind their competition. Yet in all this criticism one fact is getting
lost these days, the fact that already in 1996 Leica introduced a high
resolution digital camera, the Leica S1.
We must remember that this
was at a time when 2 to 3MP digital cameras that took pictures of questionable
quality were the norm, the days when film photography was still way ahead of
digital and when the Leica M6 was the best 35mm film camera that money could
buy. In view of this, it is all the more
amazing that the Leica S1 offered a resolution of 26 megapixels, something that
even by today’s standards is very high.
How could this be
possible? At that time, resolution
levels of this magnitude could only be achieved with so called scanning
backs. Instead of taking the entire
image instantly, as is the norm today, the Leica S1 (as well as other, similar
digital cameras at the time) scanned the image line by line. Unfortunately this resulted in exposure times
of about 185 seconds. Subsequently the
camera was only useful for stationary objects.
The camera was designed to
capture square 36 x 36mm images using 35mm lenses. Though designed for use with
Leica R-series lenses, Leica also offered lens mounts for Nikon, Contax, Canon
FD, and Minolta lenses as well as for medium-format optics from Hasselblad and
the Pentax 6x7. There was also a Novoflex adapter that allowed the use of
large-format lenses from Rodenstock & Schneider, and a tilt-shift adapter
for use with Hasselblad lenses.
Leica S1 with Leica R
mount
The S1 could also be
coupled to the rear of a view camera to take advantage of tilt, swing, and
shift movements which further increased the overall versatility of the camera.
The ISO setting for the S1
was ISO 50, the D-max about 3.3, and the image files contained a dynamic range
of 11 stops of latitude. At 300 dpi you could produce incredibly sharp 17 x
17" prints without having to interpolate the image, which in 1996 was
almost unheard of.
Leica S1 Side View
Leica S1 Viewfinder
Included with the Leica S1
was a 55mm IRa filter, LaserSoft High Software, a PCI card (PC or Mac), and a
20' cable. As for system requirements, the S1 ran off of PowerMacs (7.55 or
higher), or Pentium PCs (Windows 95 or higher) with a minimum of 256MB of RAM,
a hard drive of at least 1GB, and Photoshop 3.05 or higher.
All that could be had for
the price of $21,500. Needless to say,
the camera did not set any sales records.
It was mostly sold to museums and research institutions. But it is interesting to think that this
level of performance was not available from Leica until the introduction of the
Leica S2 in 2008.
________________________________________________________________________________________
To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.
All ads present items of interest to Leica owners.
To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.
All ads present items of interest to Leica owners.
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/affiliates.aspx?code=AP-969
For more information on KOMARU and for orders go to: www.taos-photographic.com
NEW Komaru Colors
For more information and pre orders go to: www.lenstab.com
For more information on KOMARU and for orders go to: www.taos-photographic.com
NEW Komaru Colors
For more information and pre orders go to: www.lenstab.com
Click on image to enlarge
Order: info@gmpphoto.com
Click on image to enlarge
Order: info@gmpphoto.com
Click on image to enlarge
Order: info@gmpphoto.com
Click on image to enlarge
Order: info@gmpphoto.com
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography
Click on image to enlarge
Order: info@gmpphoto.com
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography
Click on image to enlarge
Order: info@gmpphoto.com
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography
0.01 MP, is that even enough for a postage stamp?
ReplyDeleteDon't knock it, we all have to start somewhere. Niepce's picture out of the window of his study in 1826 wasn't much to write home about either.
DeleteKodak is till in business.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. But they are not even a shadow of their former self, and they really have nothing to offer for general photography.
Delete