New Leica S medium format camera coming at Photokina with 40-50MP CMOS sensor and 4K

Talking with a Leica rep at NAB in Las Vegas, I was told that Leica will be announcing a new Leica S camera with a 40-50 megapixel CMOS sensor at this year’s Photokina expo in Germany. The CMOS sensor is expected, as is the resolution bump, but what really surprised me was that there they were also adding video… 4K video. The switch to CMOS means that implementing live view and video is a technical reality, and it’s nice to see Leica jump straight to 4K and not go all half-assed about it. If you’re a fan of that RED camera shallow depth of field look, just imagine how the video from a 30x45mm sensor will look! Of course, it will be a stills camera doing video, so it will just be an added feature and not that competitive with a true cinema camera, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
It will also be interesting to see how those Summarit-s lenses perform with video, though since the focus isn’t geared for a follow-focus and likewise there’s no aperture control on the the lenses, they’re not that well suited to it. I also wouldn’t expect a $5,000 lens (Summarit-M) to perform on the same level as a $15,000 lens (Summicron-C) or $25,000 lens (Summilux-C).
When I inquired about cine lens availability, I was told that the Summicron-C where in stock and readily available but the Summilux-C, lenses were only available as a set of 8 (for $200,000) and that there was a two year wait for delivery.
http://www.digipixelpop.com/?p=970
 
Interesting, its nice to see MF is getting a boost. First the pentax and now this. The frame size will be closer to s65 then 14perf Imax in case anyone was wounding. I doubt it will be that great for video but hope that I am wrong. Another issue with MF glass is lens breathing, at least with my mamiya 645 set.

I really want to see something that handles more like a Mamiya 7 then a MF SLR.
 
Interesting, its nice to see MF is getting a boost. First the pentax and now this. The frame size will be closer to s65 then 14perf Imax in case anyone was wounding. I doubt it will be that great for video but hope that I am wrong. Another issue with MF glass is lens breathing, at least with my mamiya 645 set.

I really want to see something that handles more like a Mamiya 7 then a MF SLR.

Sony's due to release their own MF system that uses an EVF and no mirror, like a digital Mamiya. They're probably sorting lenses still though, look at how long their FE-mount stuff is taking.

I'd love to see how bad the rolling shutter on these 50mp cameras will be.
 
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