Leica Italy gave us the opportunity to test a Leica M10 Monochrom for a few days. The camera of the historic German company has a particularity that makes it even more unique than the other cameras of the M series. Its full frame 41 megapixel sensor takes only black and white images. That is, it does not have the Bayer filter and cannot “see” the color. But surprisingly, what could be a limit is actually a unique opportunity, as we will see in a moment. Provided of course that you only want to take black and white photos.
This Monochrom (the name is spelled like this, without the final “e”, because it is the German word for “monochromatic”) is the third in a relatively recent tradition, which began with the first version in May 2012 with a CCD sensor from Kodak based on the body of the Leica M9. Dubbed “Henri” in honor of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the great French interpreter of street photography who only shot black and white, it was supposed to be an experiment and instead quickly turned into a niche hit in photography's long tail. Problems with the CCD sensor prompted the creation of the second version of 2015, based on the body of the Leica M Typ 240, with the Cmos sensor tailor-made for Leica.
The Leica M Monochrom Typ 246 has been the reference and practically the only mnochromic camera for five years, with ISO from 100 to 25,000 and a rear screen of 921,000 pixels. When, however, in January 2017 Leica presented the Leica M10, with a thinner body that brought the proportions of the digital rangefinder camera back to those of film cameras (the digital versions until then were a bit “chubby”) Many, including this reporter, who has been passionate about the Wetzlar house for years, wondered when a new Monochrom with this new camera body would come out. But time passed, alas, without news. Until January of this year, when the Leica M10 Monochrom came out with a surprise: unlike the launch M10 which has a 24 megapixel sensor, the M10 Monochrom has a new 41 megapixel one. It is the same sensor, also tailor-made for Leica, which would later be used in a “color version” for the subsequent Leica M10-R.
Com ' Monochrom is done
The Leica M10 Monochrom is built like all other M10s and follows the long history of the Leica M series in an almost philological manner. We start with the first Leica M3, born in 1954, and then the subsequent M2 (cheaper, from 1957), M4 (1966), M5 (1971), M6 (1984) and M7 (2002). All analogue that is film, all with rangefinder (focusing system via cockpit that collimates two different views, and not like the reflex cameras with a mirror that sees directly through the lens.
Over time, the art of using a Leica M has become increasingly rare and even singular, given what can be done with digital cameras (recently transformed into mirrorless, i.e. non-reflex devices that are killing, together with smartphones, the market). of traditional reflex cameras), and landed in the digital world with the M8 of 2006 (Aps-C sensor) and then the full frame series from the Leica M9 (of 2009) onwards, first with Kodak Ccd sensor and then with Cmos sensor made tailor-made for Leica from 2012 M Typ 240.
Long excursus to say that, broadly speaking, the characteristics of the machine are the same: rangefinder, solid metal body (heavy) with battery access and single SD memory card from the back under the machine, which opens with a key and prevents you from holding stop the car on a tripod if you want to change the battery, same controls and same arrangement, with the addition of the left ring to change the ISO, which is perhaps the really thing to change, but we'll see later. The dimensions are 139 x 38.5 x 80 mm and the weight is 660 grams.
The lenses of the Leica M have been the same since the 1950s and, even if the former have a relatively limited resolution, they are all perfectly usable and with excellent results. The visual “signature” of photos taken with a Leica has been consistent for seventy years and is also very recognizable and dramatic. In the world of color, however, this increasingly depends on how the color sensor is made and the type of processing that is done. With “natural” black and white everything changes. And it changes for the better.
The shot goes up to 1/4000 of a second (from eight seconds maximum), there is a 2GB buffer for photos and captures 10 images at 4.5 images per second. There is no optical stabilization but, knowing the rangefinder machines there is no need.
The TTL exposure metering system offers three positions and works perfectly consistently with cameras of the last thirty years, no kidding. The same results are obtained, in the reporter's memory, as with an M4 TTL and then the M5 and M6 film.
Photos taken with the M10 Monochrom have a very high image quality and level of detail, and bright tones (luminance) that are superior to those of photos obtained with color photo conversions.
How does it work
The Leica M10 Monochrom has an apparently complex but in reality very simple operation. The commands are few: shutter speed, ISO and shutter button with the ignition below (the camera does not shoot video), in front of the button for the release of the lens and a lever to release the threads of the frames inside the viewfinder to force other types of focal lengths. We'll be back in a moment.
Finally, the original Leica lenses all have the same setting: outer aperture adjustment ring and internal focusing with hollow slider that can be pushed with a finger and which in the central position under the lens always marks the same focusing distance, i.e. one and a half meters. This is to maximize muscle memory and allow you to work with the machine even without looking at the settings.
Furthermore, on the front side there are the display (now touch but not tilting) with three buttons on the left (respectively Play mode to review the photos, Live to see through the lens, and Menu for adjustments) and the presence of a another dial on the right, operated with the thumb that can be programmed for exposure compensation or other functions.
The beauty of the rangefinder is that it focuses by collimating two images in the center of the optical viewfinder (a lens that looks at the world, not a microscopic LCD screen), and that a superimposed bright frame allows you to understand, within what the viewfinder frames, which part of the field is actually framed by the lens. The viewfinder is fixed (and has an optical multiplication factor of 0.92, that is, it is slightly wide-angle) while obviously when you change lenses, the frames also change in order to understand which part of the field will be framed by the lens.
It sounds complicated but this reporter, who has tried all the latest Leica models and owns a film (M2), guarantees that it is much more intuitive and easier to try to do it than to describe it.
How is the Leica M10 Monochrom doing
There are two levels to understanding how Monochrom works. The first is more general and relates to rangefinder cameras in general and especially to those of Leica. Instead, the second level has to do with using a camera like the Monochrom, which only takes black and white photos with impressive resolution. Let's quickly see the first and then delve into the second.
Shooting with a Leica M series Shooting with the Leica M series is a Zen exercise. It requires knowledge of the basics of photography because, in the best of intentions, the camera is unforgiving and does exactly what is asked of it. You need to know the exposure triangle and understand how to adjust between ISO, shutter speeds and apertures, and you need to know how to play with the hyperfocal for focusing because the focus is only manual and requires work. The M10s allow you to have ISO and times in automatic mode (the apertures are on the lenses and are only manual). If you put both in automatic mode, you can use the aperture to work on the depth of field by holding the focus at a certain distance and opening or closing the lens to make the field of focus wider or narrower. Or vice versa, but in the second case you go slower.
These operations are easy and, once you get the hang of it, they allow you to take even fast shots (compared to traditional digital cameras) but the purpose of a Leica M is not sports photography with bursts and super-sensitive focusing and exposure systems. . Instead, you can take street photography, interior photos, portraits, panoramas and the environment with ease, especially with the 41 megapixel resolution that the M10 Monochrom and M10-R offer. Only one thing is missing: being able to quickly manage the exposure of the image. Here, in my opinion, Leica follows a wrong philosophy and has put the ring on the left (marked with indexes) for the ISO while the one on the right in front is used for compensation but is not marked. It would have been better to do the opposite, losing a bit of speed but allowing you to have settings even when the camera is stationary or with the viewfinder far from the eye of the shooter. It is an opinion, but not only of this chronicler.
The specific of the Leica M10 Monochrom Let's see black and white instead. Here the Monochrom is transformed into the most beautiful car in the world and probably the only one for which it makes sense to invest in such an expensive device even for a professional. It's a machine that covers a genre, and it's the only one that does it and it does it very well. The photos have an enormous amount of micro-contrast and detail because all the pixels collaborate in the overall image rather than serving only one of the three colors of the Bayer filter mosaic.
The expressiveness of black and white is an acquired taste. There are some that are born to us, of course, but in reality it is part of the education of the eye (apart from total color blind people, we are used to seeing, dreaming and thinking in color) and it is substantially a different way from that of traditional photography. . If you shoot in black and white it is as if you decide to be an ascetic monk: you have to look at the world in another way looking for shapes, lights and light-dark contrasts. We no longer photograph people's clothes (ie their color) but their shapes, their features, the drama (or serenity) of the environments. The world in black and white is another world, and demonstrates how photography is anything but a neutral representation of reality, but rather an interpretation of it and the construction of what the photographer's eye sees and imagines. If he is able to do it, because otherwise the camera will take care of it.
In fact, in the case of many super-automatic and powerful cameras, often the photo is “beautiful” because that is what the camera sees with its algorithms, regardless of the photographer. In the case of the Leica with the M series, much of the responsibility for the photo lies with the photographer. Who must have the taste for making black and white images and constantly seeing a different world, with a different expressiveness and sensitivity. At that point the Monochrom is not only the only but also the best camera for black and white. Photos taken with other cameras and converted to black and white only render a quarter of the capacity and resolution of this unique sensor and the Maestro II processor that manages its operation.
Conclusions
The camera is as unique as its photos: difficult and showing the photographer's limitations quite clearly. A Leica, if the photographer is not capable, takes pictures between the ugly and the very ugly. But if the photographer is good and capable, especially if he has something to say and knows how to say it, the Leica M10 Monochrom is powerful and its photos are much richer and more nuanced than what you could get with most cameras by turning to black and white (which is also a digital falsification, if the sensor is in color).
In our test we found the Leica M10 Monochrom superior to the previous two generations of Monochrom, which we were able to use for long periods, and despite those cameras being excellent devices themselves. The M10 Monochrom has something more, both thanks to 70% resolving power compared to the Leica M with 24 megapixel sensor. ISO from 160 to 100 thousand (usable up to 50 thousand and more) with a 1.036 megapixel Gorilla touch screen with the ability to focus and compose in live mode are the technical details. According to the writer, it is also the slightly slimmer and lighter body that makes the difference, since shooting with a Leica is a visual fact but also an eminently physical, tactile one, made up of weights to move, levers to move, angles to find.
The camera, among other things, is also compatible with the new digital viewfinder that attaches as an optical add-on and which also contains a GPS sensor to geolocate the photos. We couldn't try it, it costs a lot and the GPS function should be contained in the camera body in our opinion.
You have to have money on hand, want a rangefinder and a passion for black and white photography and its language which are frankly rare. A niche within a niche. However, with the sales and generations of devices that follow one another, Leica has shown that this niche exists and is very lively. The M10 Monochrom is the most unique machine you can buy and, if you have the discipline to work with black and white exclusively, it will be a revolution beyond expectations for you.
A final note: the M10 Monochrom does not have the classic “Leica” red dot on the faceplate above the lens. A touch of class, considering that color is banned from this unit.
Pro
Cons
Price
Leica M10 Monochrom body only: 8,340 euros
The original new Leica lenses go from 4,000 to 14,000 euros.
