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Peter Dooling wrote a new post, Leica USA Offers Limited Time Savings 11 years ago
Made in Germany, Savings in America
Leica Camera USA has announced the Exchange Rate Savings Program, a new consumer promotion offering savings on almost all Leica Photographic Products*. This promotion runs from May 1st, 2015 through May 31st, 2015 and is intended to compensate for the current strength of the US Dollar against the Euro.
Please don't hesitate to contact Leica Store Miami anytime with questions, either via phone at 305-921-4433 or via email. The promotion is scheduled to end May 31, 2015. To see the new lower pricing, click on any of the collections below:
Shop Leica M-System
Shop Leica S-System
Shop Leica X-System
Shop Leica Compact Cameras & Accessories
* The following Leica Photographic Products are excluded:
- 10789 – Leica M-P ‘CORRESPONDENT’ by Lenny Kravitz for Kravitz Design
- 10933 – Leica M-P (Typ 240) Set ‘Safari’
- 10930 – Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246)
- 11688 – Leica Summilux-M 50 mm/f1.4 ASPH, black chrome finish
- 11689 – Leica Summicron-M 35 mm/f2 ASPH, black chrome finish
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Josh Lehrer wrote a new post, Leica Announces Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) 11 years ago
Today, Leica Camera has announced the new Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246), successor to the hugely popular Leica M Monochrom. The camera contains an essentially identical feature set to the recently released Leica M-P (Typ 240) but with the color filter array removed from the CMOS sensor for true, high-quality black & white imaging. Priced at $7,450, the M Monochrom (Typ 246) is expected to be available mid-May 2015. At the same time, Leica has also released a line of colored lens filters in both E39 and E46 sizes (available in July). The filters come in orange, yellow, and green and can be seen online here: New Leica M Color Filters.
A full review of the new camera is now live on Red Dot Forum with numerous sample images and analysis by David Farkas. The review can be seen here: M Monochrom (Typ 246) Review.
The official press release, from Leica:
The new Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) is the first and only digital camera that captures a real black and white image, still or moving. Reduced to the essentials for true, authentic and direct black and white photography, the Leica M Monochrom offers unparalleled image performance, outstanding low light capabilities and rich details.
Black and white photography is the essence of photography. Leica produced the first first digital monochrome camera in the 35 mm format and the new Leica M Monochrom is a step into the next generation.
Sensor
The Leica M Monochrom has a 24-megapixel resolution on a monochrom CMOS sensor similar to the Leica M. As the M Monochrom has no need for color filters, it needs no interpolation for the calculation of luminance values. This results in brilliant images which have 100% more details and contrast than what is possible in color photography.
Up to ISO 25,000
The new Leica M Monochrom opens up new dimensions for available-light photography with its combination of low noise up to ISO 25,000, a bright viewfinder, a low-vibration shutter release and fast lenses.
Full Visual Control with Live View
The high-resolution 3” monitor with 921,600 pixels ensures that photographers have complete control of composition, exposure, focusing and depth of field. The Live View also offers two additional focusing methods. The up to 10x magnification in Live View Zoom mode enables full control of the sharpness of details in the image on the monitor or the closest focusing distance. In Live View Focus Peaking mode, sharply focused edges in the image are highlighted by colored lines.
Full HD Video in Black and White
The new Leica M Monochrom captures high-quality, full-HD video in black and white. With the optional Leica microphone adapter set, one can be assured of perfect sound.
2 GB Buffer Memory
With it’s high-capacity 2GB buffer memory and Leica Maestro processor, the camera captures sequences 3 times faster than its predecessor. In addition, the new processor enables extremely fast display of the captured images in review mode.
Sapphire Crystal Glass
The LC display is made of scratch-resistant and almost unbreakable sapphire crystal which has been treated with an anti-reflective protective coating that ensures that photographers can check their images in any lighting situation.
Accessories
All current M accessories for the Leica M (Typ 240) can be used with the Leica M Monochrom. These accessories include finger loops, electronic view finder, ever-ready cases, flash and straps. In addition, R-lenses can be used on the Leica M Monochrom with the Leica M-Adapter-R.
The Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) can be ordered online here: Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) or you can call Leica Store Miami at 305-921-4433. Don't hesitate to email us with any questions.
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David Farkas wrote a new post, Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) Review 11 years ago
Many in the photographic community have speculated that it was only a matter of time until Leica made a monochrome version of the M (Typ 240), more commonly known as the M240. The original M Monochrom, perhaps now […]
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Excellent review David! I am looking forward putting my hands on El Jefe in the very near future!
Wow, what a complete and wonderfully timely review.
Looking forward to your S (007) review should you ever get one ahead of time.
Get some sleep now.
Jack
Great review David.
As a two-year owner of the original M Monochrom I've been eager to see how the new CMOS version would compare, and your review shows us that exactly.
Impressive as it is, I will sit out this generation of M cameras and go forward for the next three years (or maybe six?) with the original M Monochrom and M-E, which both still do just about everything I want them too with the singular exception of clean high ISO in color, which isn't worth the cost of a dual upgrade or of dealing with two hardware systems and their respective batteries and chargers.
For me the world is the same as it was last week, M-E (M9) for beautiful color on good to moderate light, and M Monochrom for incredible black and white no matter the conditions. ISO 10,000 is high enough for anything I want to do except deep depth of field in low light, which just isn't a priority.
Great images by the way.
All of the images were processed in Adobe Lightroom CC (v6).
Sure. Here is a screen grab from my basic settings in LR for an M246 file:
My biggest change is to pull down the blacks and bring up the exposure to compensate a little. I like rich shadow contrast. Really, though, these changes are fairly minor. Sometimes, I'll bring up the shadows or tone down the highlights more. It really depends on the image and my intended interpretation.
On the sharpening and noise reduction settings I use:
And that's about it. I don't change the sharpening settings, except at very high ISO, I will bump up Masking a little. And with NR, I will bring the amount up to 20-30 for shots above ISO 8000.
Hope this helps.
Did you try to turn off lens profile corrections in LR?
We first discovered a strange behavior in LR when processing M9M files a couple years ago when using lens profile corrections. Seems that there is sometimes some pattern noise introduced in B&W images with pulled up shadows. What was even stranger was that the artifacts were only visible once exported. In LR, at any magnification, the files were clean.
Some shots were manually set, but most were shot with Auto ISO, using Aperture priority.
Color filters work the same way on B&W digital as they do on film. The effect is much easier to accomplish in camera than in post processing.
Hi.
I am considering to Purchase a M 246 after reading your review.
I am a DSLR usar and I am kind of worried about the rangefinder and focus.
Do you have any recomendations about this transition?
Thank you!
My suggestion is to just jump in with both feet! The transition to rangefinder is fairly quick and painless. After a couple of days of real use, it will feel natural. After a week, it will become second nature.
You can't go wrong with the 50 APO. I switched from the 50 Lux to the 50 APO and never once regretted it. The bokeh of the 50 APO is still very nice and pleasing. The Lux will be a little softer, but will not be as sharp as the APO wide open. And on the Monochrom M246, the added sharpness really shows. Hope this helps.
I would welcome insight from others on processing software other than Adobe CC, PS, or LR with the MM246. Capture One appears to be not compatible and when I called their tech people they said they had no plans to do so, even though the M9 Monochrom is supported. Has anyone tried Luminar?
Joel,
Leica has a partnership with Adobe (since 2009), so the best results will usually be had using Adobe software for DNG image processing. Is there a reason you are looking for alternatives to Lightroom?