BLACK & WHITE ISSUE FOR LEICA

The premium brand has issued a full frame, black and white stills shooting camera in the aptly named M10 Monochrom. BPI News attended the London launch to get hands on and find out more…

This is something no one else in the industry would make, and the sort of camera that probably says more about Leica than anything else we have,” UK MD Jason Heward tells us at the unveiling of the black and white capture-only Leica M10 Monochrom. It’s a deliberately ‘purist’ model which also omits video entirely. Brave moves like this are exactly what will have existing Leica fans salivating – while the price tag of a cool £7,250 will also confirm to them that this is a premium camera worth owning.

Pure joy: A premium build and performance is the promise of Leica’s M10 Monochrom, which as the name suggests shoots only B&W. According to UK MD Jason Heward (below) the camera “probably says more about Leica than anything else we have”

It’s a policy that seems to be working, too. The launch of a plethora of premium priced and at times strictly limited models over the past 12 months – including, most recently the SL2 (see BPI News Dec/Jan) – has, according to Jason, given Leica “probably its best year ever. In this challenging industry it’s great that we are still managing to grow, and particularly in the UK.”

The new Leica M10 Monochrom brings the current M10 family to four in number. It joins the existing M10, M10-P and M10-D – the latter infamously not featuring a screen at the back. Of these, the manufacturer believes the 40 megapixel M10 Monochrom is the “one that elicits that emotional connection when we talk to our customers and users. It ‘talks’ a lot to people’s creativity. It’s the ultimate camera for those who are trying to approach their creativity in a different and perhaps a more purist way.”

BRASS IN POCKET

As we’d expect, the hand-made build quality of the latest Leica is second to none, with tank-like solidity and dimensions ‘milled down’ to ape the proportions of a film camera. Weighing 660g with battery inserted (but not lens attached), the brass and magnesium alloy body boasts a sleek black chrome finish that allows the street photographer to step back into the shadows and shoot discretely. Its exterior mirrors the fact it shoots only in black and white by omitting the brand’s famous red logo and ‘greying out’ other giveaways, including the ‘A’ for auto exposure mode, and red flash symbol as well as the model name.

Of course, ultra high image quality is what potential customers for the M10 Monochrom will be wanting in spades. Here it doesn’t disappoint either. According to Leica Akademie tutor Robin Sinha, output is almost medium format-like, thanks to “almost 15 stops of dynamic range provided.”

A world without colour: Leica believes the camera’s images are almost 100% sharper than the colour equivalent, with results comparable to that from a 60MP or 80MP sensor

He adds: “results can be compared with a 60MP or 80MP sensor” and that “detail is incredibly sharp because the light doesn’t have to pass through RGB colour filters. The pixels have their true luminance value, so the image is almost 100% sharper than the colour equivalent. Combine that with the resolution of the Leica lenses and you’ve got something very special. Plus, thanks to the 40MP sensor, there are increased possibilities for cropping, whilst still retaining a very high resolution for print.” Available for immediate order, overall this is a very impressive camera, albeit one that will serve a deliberately niche and specialist market.

https://store.leica-camera.com/uk/en/