Photokina 2008: Leica Unleashes 37.5-Megapixel Beast

The Leica S2 is the new monster of the megapixels with a whopping 37.5 MP resolution. It's outfitted with a 3:2 aspect ratio Kodak KAF-37500 CCD image sensor that produces an intriguing hybrid of an SLR and medium-format camera. Michael Tompkins at Image Resource explains:

Dubbed "Leica Pro Format" by the company, the S2's imager has 56% greater surface area than that of a 35mm full-frame image sensor, but about 22% less than the 36 x 48mm imagers used in certain other medium format DSLR products from the likes of Leaf and Hasselblad. The sensor communicates with a Maestro-branded image processor that Leica says offers reduced power consumption and "twice the speed of comparable medium-format backs".

Additionally, Wired's Gadget Lab notes the camera's unique shutter system:

The body contains a standard focal plane shutter, but the new lenses also have leaf shutters. Leaf shutters are notable because they act like the aperture leaves in the lens and, unlike the focal plane shutter, they open to their full extent whatever shutter speed is selected, meaning that very high flash sync speeds can be achieved.

Focal plane shutters only open fully up to a certain speed (usually 1/250th or 1/500 sec max). After that, the second curtain fires before the first one has reached the other side of the frame, resulting in a slit that travels across the sensor. If your flash fires, that's what you'll see: a dark frame with a small illuminated strip.

In other DSLR news, Olympus announced that it will be developing a DSLR based on the Four Thirds system (Pocket-Lint captured a photo of the prototype at the Olympus booth; we'll also have more on Four-Thirds systems a little later today). And if you want a blinged-out DSLR, check out the Swarovski crystal-encrusted Pentax K2000 over at Engadget (covered here earlier this week).

--Agen G.N. Schmitz