The 64mp Red Dot Medium Format Camera with The Versatility of a 35mm DSLR Camera
On Friday 6th March 2020 Leica officially shipped the S3, the latest model in the Leica medium format line.
The S3 was officially announced at Photokina 2018 and, I had the opportunity to test a pre-production prototype in the beginning of 2019. The S line was first released in 2008 and it’s a very mature system with a lens portfolio of 10 focal lengths from 24mm up to 180mm, from which 6 lenses have a leaf shutter, which Leica calls Central Shutter lenses (CS).
I work as a fine art portrait photographer specializing in burlesque and vintage styled photos, trying to bring back the memorable Hollywood glamour of the 20's and 30's. I have used all previous versions of the S line and currently work with the S (Typ 007), which was released in 2015.
In these days with the rise of mirrorless medium format systems, Leica remains faithful to the DSLR concept and they have good reasons to do so. Some of the advantages of the S compared to other medium formats are:
The dual shutter, you can switch between focal plane shutter 1/4000th and Central Shutter (CS) up to 1/1000th of a second
The outstanding battery life - you can shoot almost a full day with one battery
Wonderful robust dust and waterproof body and lenses
Gorgeous optical viewfinder with 98% coverage
No heating issues
The wonderful Leica lenses
Leica offers adapters with full AF and Aperture control for the Contax 645 and Hasselblad H series.
Unlike the upgrade from SL to SL2, the S3 body remains completely the same as it’s predecessor the S007. So for me the camera feels very familiar and I didn’t need to read the manual to work with the camera. What I love about the S system, true to the Leica DNA, is that it delivers the essence of photography, no extra bells or whistles, just aperture, shut- ter speed and ISO at your fingertips. The S3 has the same 4 button layout as the previous versions and since it’s a DSLR format it has an optical viewfinder but once you have tried the big and crystal clear optical viewfinder of the S3, it’s difficult to go back to even the lastest electronic viewfinder. I do wish Leica had upgraded the camera with a new LCD screen with a touchscreen for swiping through and zooming in images.
Burg Eltz with Yuki - Leica S3 & Elmarit-S 45mm at f/2.8, 1/350th sec, ISO 200
The Leica S3 sports a 30 x 45mm ‘Proformat’ sensor with 64 megapixel resolution. This means a 71% resolution increase compared to the 37.5 megapixels of the Leica S (Typ 007).
The new CMOS sensor was specially developed for the S3 and offers 15 stops of dynamic range, obviously to say the files coming out of the S3 are very malleable in shadow and highlights in post-production. Since I shoot mostly portraits, I prefer the 3:2 aspect ratio over the 4:3 aspect ratio of other medium format systems.
The Leica Maestro II processor handles the large files very well and allows shooting at 3 FPS at full resolution. The files can be stored on both SD or CF card.
The CMOS sensor of the S3 offer high sensitivity up to 50,000 ISO. With the S (Typ 007) I could easily go up to 3200 ISO, which was already very impressive for this system when it was released back in the day, but with the S3 I could go easily up to 12,000 ISO. The grain is not comparable with film grain, but it’s a very fine grain which is wonderful in black and white photography.
The camera offers live view via the back screen and for the video fans it has Cine 4K video with all the benefits of the full lens coverage.
The files of the S (Typ 007) often needed tuning in post production for the skin tones - the photos tended to have a greenish/orange tint. I see a big improvement in the way the S3 handles skintones. Leica claims the newly designed color filter array (CFA) offers the highest color fidelity to any Leica camera to date and I think they absolutely got this right.
The Vintage Style - Leica S (Typ 007) & Apo-Macro-Summarit-S 120mm at f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100
The single point AF is not the fastest but it is very consistent and accurate. With the very fast Summicron-S 100mm f/2 ASPH, I often set the focus to manual and activate the autofocus using the back button focus technique. In the beta version I had, the S3 was a little faster to focus compared to the S007. Don’t expect to capture fast paced photography; it’s more for static poses and objects. I do wish Leica would offer an external electronic viewfinder (EVF) as they offer for the M series, for very precise focusing and in lower light situations.
Rear Window - Leica S3 & Summicron-S 100mm at f/2.0, 1/250 sec, ISO 3200
While the S lenses might not be as perfect as the newer Leica SL lenses, I do feel the S line combined with the new sensor offers a wonderful cinematic look with a unique output system. The S lenses handle the 64 mp very well and my clients often prefer the files of the S compared to photos taken with other camera systems. With a price tag of 18,995 USD, the S3 is higher priced then some of the mirrorless competitors but still much lower than other DSLR medium format systems. The S3 might not offer the latest bells and whistles but I would definitely recommend the S3 over any other medium format camera because it combines the best lenses in a very robust and easy to handle package and I do believe that 64 mp is a sweet spot for this type of medium format system. The camera is a great tool for portrait or landscape photographers who request only the best file quality, which differentiates you from other photographers.
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