LEICA MONOCHROME FULL
LEICA MONOCHROME PRO
LEICA MONOCHROME SOFTWARE

Of course, the Monochrom sensor does come with some caveats. The technology inside makes the experience of shooting with the M10 a unique experience. The Leica M10 Monochrom camera has a specially designed sensor that only shoots in black and white. The presence of colored filters on a digital camera prevent this from working correctly, but a black-and-white sensor can handle it. In the film days, black-and-white shooters would often employ a yellow filter over the lens to increase contrast or a red filter when shooting landscapes to block blue light coming from the sky and make it appear darker in the final image. They’re specialized tools specifically for shooters looking to squeeze impossible amounts of detail out of an image.įilters offer another advantage.

LEICA MONOCHROME PRO

In the world of pro photography, monochrome sensors aren’t uncommon on high-end medium format camera backs that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The new camera goes all the way up to ISO 100,000. When Leia introduced the original version of the M Monochrom way back in 2012, you could realistically shoot at ISO 10,000 and maintain lots of image detail, dynamic range, and reasonable noise.

More importantly, however, the individual pixels provide a more appealing pattern when viewed up close-it actually resembles grain instead of digital noise, which typically shows up as ugly colored dots and artifacts throughout the image. The M10 Monochrom eschews the need for these colored filters which allows more light to hit the pixels that collect the photons.

LEICA MONOCHROME FULL

This ISO 10,000 shot from the 2012 M Monochrom looks clean and full of detail. This process affects the appearance of the final image, specifically when you dig into the fine detail and when noise starts to pop up as you crank the camera’s ISO sensitivity. The picture isn’t a pixel-by-pixel recreation of the scene. When you snap a photo, each pixel only captures its specific color and the camera then crunches that data into a full-color image. They’re typically arranged in the Bayer pattern, which uses a ratio of 2:1:1 green to red to blue. In a typical digital camera sensor, each one of those pixels would sit behind a red, green, or blue colored filter. The sensor itself boasts a 40-megapixel resolution.

Instead, Leica built the M10 Monochrom around a sensor that isn’t physically capable of producing a color photo.

LEICA MONOCHROME SOFTWARE

This isn’t one of those cases where a company uses software to cripple a device like Nikon did with its DF DSLR that doesn’t shoot video. It costs over $8,000 before you add a lens and it doesn’t have the capacity to capture color photos. That distinction is part of what makes Leica’s new M10 Monochrom camera so interesting. Call digital noise “grain” in front of a photo snob and you’ll likely find yourself on the receiving end of a pedantic explanation about how the two aren’t the same-at all. Say “tattoo gun” instead of “tattoo machine” in a shop, for instance, and you’ll immediately reveal yourself as an outsider who hasn’t learned the parlance. LeicaĪlmost every subculture and craft has its own specific lexicon that can quickly identify outsiders. When it comes to cameras, there’s none more black.

Leica monochrome