subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 22 February 2020 45
latest differs by employing a
completely new 40.9-million-pixel
full-frame CMOS sensor that
doesn’t, as yet, have a
conventional colour counterpart.
Leica says that this brings a ‘new
benchmark in image quality’ to the
series. The price tag is eye-
watering, of course, but in context
it’s a premium of just £650 over
the standard colour M10-P. Even
so, can a camera that costs over
£7,000, but only shoots in black &
white, really make any sense?
Features
To address this question, first we
need to think about that new
sensor. Not only does it deliver
higher resolution than its
predecessor, aided by the
omission of an optical low-pass
filter, it also provides a broader
sensitivity range of ISO 160-
100,000, compared to ISO
320-25,000. Leica says that it
delivers lower noise and increased
dynamic range, while being
specifically optimised for use with
M-mount lenses, which requires a
careful arrangement of offset
microlenses over the pixels
towards the corners of the sensor.
Crucially, this means that in
principle, the M10 Monochrom
should deliver the highest black &
white image quality of any current
full-frame camera, surpassing
what you’d get from colour
sensors with higher pixel counts.
The rest of the M10 Monochrom
is, however, very basic by modern
standards. Being a rangefinder
camera, focusing is manual only,
with composition via a direct-vision
optical viewfinder at the corner of
the camera body. You can shoot in
either aperture-priority or manual
exposure modes, with traditional
analogue controls for shutter
speed, ISO, aperture and focusing.
A simple TTL metering systemmeasures light reflected off the
focal-plane shutter, with blades
painted in different shades of grey
producing a centre-weighted bias.
Timed shutter speeds are
available from 8sec to 1/4000sec
in half-stop increments, set using
the top-plate dial; with the dial in
the B or A positions, this can
extend as long as 16 minutes.
Continuous shooting is available at
4.5 frames per second, and I was
able to rattle off 8 or 9 raw frames
in a burst before the camera
slowed down (although curiously,
Leica promises a 10-shot buffer).
Leica’s venerable M mount dates
back to 1954, and as a result is
entirely mechanical, with no
electronic communication
between the camera and lens. But
the camera can still identify the
lens in use, using an optical sensor
to read a set of black or white
spots painted onto its mount – a
system known as 6-bit coding.This allows the lens ID to be
included in the EXIF data, while
the focal length can be used to
determine the minimum shutter
speed when using Auto ISO, if you
desire. The camera will still work
absolutely fine with non-coded
lenses, of course, and with older
Leica optics you can specify which
one you’re using from a list in the
camera’s menu.
Leica’s design philosophy is to
strip the camera back to the
essentials, which means it includes
only what you really need for stills
photography. So you get an
exposure bracketing control, a
built-in intervalometer, and a
2- or 12-second self-timer, but
that’s about it. Notably, like the
rest of the M10 series, this is one
of the few current models that
doesn’t record video.
However the firm isn’t really
stuck in the past, and is quite
happy to include up-to-dateThe sensor’s detail rendition is sensational,
aided by Leica’s remarkably sharp lenses
Leica Apo-Summicron M 50mm f/2, 1/4000sec at f/2, ISO 160