New Leica S3 Jumps to 64 Megapixels

In yet another development announcement, Leica Camera has announced that the third Leica S, the S3, will be arriving next Spring. The announcement comes on the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the original S, which was called the S2, in 2008. The main change in the new camera is the resolution jump, from 37.5 MP to 64 MP. Continuous shooting improves to 3 FPS, and the new camera will offer 4k video capture.

Mike

CORRECTION: The new Leica S3 will actually be the fourth Leica S camera. Hence the name of the new one is another splendid example, among many, of corporate camera-naming convention gone slightly wopplejawed. (Thanks to Hugh Crawford for this.)

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[Franklin Berryman]

Who is providing the sensor?

[Joe B]

Just wonderful! I can start the paperwork for my 2nd mortgage.

[Dogman]

And here I was, thinking the megapixel race had finally ended. Guess not. (Sigh)

[hugh crawford]

The S3 is actually the fourth Leica S mount camera.

First the Leica S2, then the Leica S (Typ 006), and the Leica S (Typ 007) so the S3 is the fourth.

Of course there was a Leica S1 but that was something else entirely https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/newsLetter/Leica-S1.jsp otherwise the S3 would be the fifth.

It reminds me of how Sony used to increment their consumer electronics model numbers backwards so that last years TV set had a higher model number than this years and the salesmen at electronics stores would insist the the higher model number was better because it was higher.

The only Leica camera I currently own is a OLIGO.

[Jeff]

If one counts the S1 digital back, then the S3 is actually the 5th named S, after the subsequent S2, S006 and S007.

[Jack]

I guess Leica waited a bit until they could get a sensor that kept the DR of 15 and added ISO and resolution. Almost too long.
I have heard that if you have any chance of seeing a difference in a print, one would need to double the resolution and this is pretty close to double the S(007).

I was doing enlargements of 5 feet by 7.5 feet with the original sensor resolution, so while Leica needed higher resolution for marketing purposes, not sure I need to pay for higher resolution until digital printers go beyond a width of 64".
Nice that for 4K video they now will use the full sensor rather than a crop. Didn't use my S(007) for 4K video for that reason, but not sure it is enough to promote an upgrade. But I said I didn't need to upgrade from the S2 to the S(006) and still I got to the S(007). The DR of 15 convinced me then. Who knows my rationale next time.

[Bernard]

Another small correction: the current S-007 is rated at 3.5 fps, so 3 fps is not an improvement of that specification, although the new camera is processing a lot more data, and both cameras are faster than any competing medium format still camera.

[James Weekes]

Isn't it true that the number 4 is considered very bad luck in Japan. As bad as, if not worse than our 13 (which adds up to 4). Therefore there are very few if any EM-1 IVs in our future.