High-ISO image quality is truly remarkable, allowing hand-held shooting in extremely low light Leica Apo-Summicron M 50mm f/2, 1/125sec at f/4, ISO 50,000
appear very obvious when examining high-resolution image files onscreen. So it’s best not to move the subject too far off-centre in your composition after focusing, which might explain why so many Leica photographers favour centred subjects. It’s also important to understand that the accuracy of the focusing is limited by the rangefinder base, which is defined by the distance between the viewfinder and the secondary window on the camera’s front. In practice, this means that it’s not technically possible to focus super-fast lenses consistently accurately. So if you’re contemplating pairing the M10 Monochrom with the £8,600 Noctilux 50mm f/0.95, for example, you’ll only be guaranteed accurate focus if you use live view. In this mode, the camera is smart enough to engage a magnified view when it detects the lens being focused, but alternatively you can zoom in manually by pressing the button on the front of the body. The focus area can be moved freely around the frame for use with off-centre subjects, and a focus peaking display is available if you require, in a choice of colours. It’s just worth remembering that the aperture will always be stopped 48
down to what’s set on the lens: this has the advantage of always previewing depth of field, but sometimes it can be better to open it up for focusing.
Performance Shooting with the M10 Monochrom is a very different proposition to anything else on the market. With its ultra-quiet shutter and understated finish, it’s extremely discreet. Like the rest of the M10 series, it’s about the closest you’ll get to the simplicity of the old-fashioned analogue experience, before the introduction of autofocus and multi-pattern metering. But the Monochrom comes with some unique provisos and quirks that need to be kept in mind, too. The camera is instantly ready to shoot, the moment you flick the power switch to turn it on. At this point you can choose to work in any way from either fully manual, to aperture priority with Auto ISO. Given that you can set the latter to use either a specific minimum shutter speed, or base it on the focal length of the lens in use (with the option of biasing towards high speeds to minimise any chance of blurring from camera shake), I can see little reason not to use it. Whichever approach to shooting you take, it’s important to
understand the characteristics of the lightmeter. It’s not like modern multi-pattern systems, able to analyse and understand almost any combination of light and shade. Instead, you need to adjust it manually according to the subject, giving an extra stop or two when faced with a bright sky, for example. But equally you have to avoid overexposure whenever possible, because unlike with a colour sensor, there’s no way of reconstructing any lost highlight detail. Instead when it’s clipped to white, it’s gone forever. The M Monochrom responds to placing coloured filters in front of the lens, in much the same way as black & white film. Yellow, orange and red filters, for example, will progressively darken blue skies and provide additional contrast with any clouds. But they’ll also rob you of light, which potentially means requiring higher ISO settings at the cost of increased image noise. For outdoor shooting in good light, I’d probably use a yellow or orange filter by default. Naturally, battery life will vary according to how you use the camera. Shooting mostly with the viewfinder, with the occasional foray into live view and image playback, I found 350 to 400 shots per charge to be entirely realistic. But with no USB port,
there’s no option to top the battery up in-camera. Of course the main thing we’re always interested in is image quality, and in a word, it’s sumptuous. In Leica’s hands, all of the theoretical advantages of a monochrome sensor become evidently real. At low ISO the M10 Monochrom is capable of recording a vast amount of detail, with exceptionally low noise and immense dynamic range. There may be no extra highlight detail recoverable in raw processing, but you can delve deep into the shadows with impunity. Even when noise becomes plainly visible as the sensitivity is increased, it has an attractive, organic character. As a result, even at higher settings such as ISO 3200, you can still indulge in the kind of extreme image adjustments during raw processing that are usually only workable with colour sensors when shot at their lowest ISOs. Image files are entirely usable right up to ISO 50,000, which in practice means you can get usable pictures in light so dim that you can barely see to focus and compose. However at the highest settings banding becomes visible in dark evenly toned regions such as night skies, frequently making ISO 100,000 files unusable.
22 February 2020 I www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
