The Leica Monochrom – Leica M Type 246

m240If you don’t get Black & White or Rangefinders move along now.

Leica’s do cause debate and a Black & White only camera even more.

So yesterday Lecia announced the replacement to the old Lecia Monochrom. The old camera was based on the M9 the new on the CMOS M 240 P.

Output from the new camera and we have only seen images from prototypes is very like the old but better high ISO performance and the old one was no slouch.

What may get people to upgrade is the better electronics. The M9 series gave great image quality but is was the feel and noise of the shutter and the low resolution LCD screen that let it down.

The colour M 240 does fantastic Black & White and with the ability to use the colour channels in your preferred editing software you can adjust the tones as you like.

For hardcore Black & White users, getting rid of the Bayer filter and the noise and artefacts it can produce gives more of a film feel. It does make tonal adjustment more difficult and the use of red, orange, blue and green filters where appropriate is required.

For most of us a colour camera is likely the better choice.

Of course the Lecia Monochrom is not the only Black & White camera. There is now a Black & White medium format back available.

I hope Leica continue to make the old Monochrom as an introductory model like they did with the old M9  which became the ME.

It looks like Black & White is here to stay whether taken with digital colour, digital Black & White or film.

Reviews at http://www.slack.co.uk/2015/Elliott.html

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