Leica S1 High Speed

The first digital camera made by Leica. A high resolution scanner camera with CCD chip (16 million, 4000 x 4000 pixels, 18s scan, 10x faster than the S1 Pro). Only about 150 cameras were sold, the new price was approx. Euro 22000 in its days.

The S1 via adapters, could make use of Leica R and M lenses, as well as Hasselblad, Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Zeiss, Olympus, Pentax, Sinar and Mamiya.

In 1996, as the digital photography revolution began, Leica brought its Leica S1 digital camera to the market. The biggest of the three versions (Pro, Alpha and Highspeed) packed 75 megapixels as a studio camera that delivered a digital scan (18 seconds) straight to an Apple OS computer station with installed Silverfast software - not a carry around camera and in fact, complete antithesis to Oskar Barnack's ideals.

Photo credit: © WestLicht Photographica Auction