Now that the Leica M
Monochrom has been on the market for a while, it is interesting to see what is
being said about the camera, its performance and its future.
Dr. Andreas Kaufmann,
chairman of Leica’s supervisory board, told Photo District News:
“What you will definitely see is we’re working on our
lens line,” noting that the new Summicron-M 50mm F2 is part of “an
architecture” for Leica that photographers will see more of. “There will
definitely be some improvements (to our products) and this (lens architecture)
is in the pipeline.”
Eric Kim posts a great review
of the M Monochrom for street photography. His thoughts:
If you still haven’t plunged on a Leica M9, are
interested in doing so, yet only shoot black-and-white — I would highly
recommend getting the M Monochrom. The black-and-white performance is
unparalleled to anything digital I have ever shot with, in terms of dynamic
range, tonality, and high ISO performance (compared to M9).
Why? In my personal experience, 90% or more of Leica
M9 shooters shoot in black-and-white anyways, so they might as well try to get
the best damn black and white camera you can afford (…)
Also I honestly doubt that if you are just shooting
street photography and uploading black-and-white images to the web, nobody will
be able to tell the difference between what camera you shot it with. You could
only tell the difference if you blow up the images 100%, but honestly how often
do you do that? So be happy with the camera you already have right now!
But at the end of the day if you have the money, love
black-and-white, want spectacular performance at high ISOs and the best dynamic
range in a digital camera, the Leica M Monochrom is for you.
Red Bull’s action photography
site Red Bull Illume reckons the M Monochrom is worth a mention by quoting
Leica Product Manager Jesko von Oeynhausen:
Black-and-white photography is more popular than ever
before. Even today, it has lost none of its fascination as an expressive
medium, not even for younger generations of photographers. For the first time
ever, we are offering an opportunity to consistently and authentically explore
black-and-white photography with the M Monochrom, a tool that is unique in the
digital world. The camera’s exclusively black-and-white sensor brings an
enormous technical benefit that is reflected in the amazing imaging quality it
delivers.
Light Squared, shedding some
light on something that black-and-white film photographers take forgranted. Here’s
the intro:
If you’ve seen the test shots from the Leica Monocrom,
you can see that this camera shoots digital that looks more and more like film.
It has grain instead of noise. The idea of a black and white only digital
camera, to me, is a great thing if I can get shots that are the best things I
like about film, with the advantages of digital.
Focus Numérique has a
comparison between the Leica M6 with Tri-X film and the Leica Monochrom. Google
translation’s verdict:
For fans of black-and-wwhite and rangefinder, the
Monochrom has all you can dream of: it’s compact, well-finished, precise,
silent...the
sharpness is excellent (no more low-pass filter or Bayer) and noise management
flawless up to ISO 3,200.
Ming Thein’s verdict:
I’m going to conclude by saying that the M Monochrom
is not the camera for everybody. It’s not easy to see luminance only; if you
can’t, you’re honestly going to get better results by shooting a color camera
and then mastering the conversion process afterwards (to be the subject of a
future article). However, with practice, some amazing things are possible with
the MM – the image quality potential of this camera is incredibly high indeed.
I’ve never seen pixel acuity at this level before – even Foveon cameras tend to
have some degradation due to the multi-layer design of the sensor.
Bellamy Hunt aka JapanCameraHunter got his hands on a
“delightful M9-M” at the Tokyo event held for the Japanese market. He says:
I am honestly floored by this camera. I have tried out
a lot of digital cameras, and none of them have really made me feel that they
were in any way close to film, but this one gave me a feeling that it could be.
OK, so there is no winder, and it makes that funny shutter noise that I cannot
stand, but this is the first digital camera that I have ever actually really
desired. I feel that it is the first camera that has stepped into the
recreation of the film feeling. I think this camera shows a coming of age for
digital sensors and is going to really change the landscape.
Steve Huff got his one hour
with the M Monochrom. He’s not only excited about the many gorgeous tones of
this new classic’s images in his hands, he’s also strangely attracted to the
camera despite the price tag:
Black-and-white has a way of tugging at your soul,
your heart, your brain. It’s simple. It’s basic. It’s real. No, it’s not real
as in what we see with our eyes but for some reason when I view classic
black-and-white images I can see deeper into the image. It has more emotion and
soul. I love black-and-white. The problem has always been that traditional
digital cameras usually sucked with Monochrome imaging. Sure we can use plug
ins like Silver Efex Pro or Alien Skin but imagine a simple camera we could have
that just allowed us to be pure. To be mono. Yep, this new Leica allows us to
do that and gives us superb IQ, great sharpness, and the ability to capture
that real emotion that so many of us love to see (…)
So after my one hour with this lovely camera I asked
myself, ”Would I sell my M9-P to buy an Monochrom?” Well, I wouldn’t want to…
but yes I would. Because after viewing my sample images I do see a difference
between this output and what comes out of an M9 with conversions. Damn Leica, you always have a way to get to my
heart and soul, and I feel that the Leica Monochrom will eventually become a
classic due to its simplicity, design, feel, use and beautiful output.
Long-time Leica user Jonathan
Slack provides a beautiful M Monochrom declaration of love, calling the camera
“Henri” — you’ll soon learn why. Image quality and high ISO?
I have to say that my wife was not overjoyed that our
trip to China was going to be recorded in black-and-white, but I think she’s
reconciled having seen the results (…) Quite simply, it’s a revelation. Quite a
new experience — even at 10,000 ISO the small amount of grain is lovely, and
reminiscent of fine grained film rather than digital. Of course, digital images
never really look like film, but the files from Henri have a very un-processed
look about them, which is presumably the result of not having been parsed
through a demosaicing program.
High ISO is what most of us have been wanting on an M
— well, here it is! I think the toning and contrast are wonderful, and the
amount of grain is irrelevant unless you are going to shoot billboard sized
prints. The ability to keep the shutter speed safely high when shooting those
fleeting moments is really useful, and I found I got a lot of keepers where I
would really have been struggling with my M9-P
The Phoblographer respects
Leica for “continuing its legacy of a true photographers camera,” even though
you won’t shoot like Henri Cartier-Bresson:
They aren’t worried about the naysayers or the mass
market who can only dream of affording one. Even with the pressure of Sony,
Fuji and Olympus making great cameras that are considered “Leica Killers” they
keep doing what they do best.
I love black-and-white and how it looks and I do see
myself purchasing a camera made for that soul purpose. I think you are going to hate the idea of the
M Monochrom if you are someone who has never held a Leica. I know a lot of
photographers but few have the heart that I have for the art of street
photography.
In forums online people are talking about how to
emulate black-and-white film using this and that slider in lightroom but they
are missing the point. Those photos in my opinion are lacking soul. The camera
is either for you or it’s not. The black-and-white camera isn’t simply a
camera, it’s a way of thinking and shooting.
For more information on the
Leica M Monochrom go to:
COMPARISON LEICA M MONOCHROM
vs. LEICA M6
ISO TEST: LEICA M MONOCHROME
vs.LEICA M9
M9 M - INCREDIBLE PERFORMACE
PROOF
MONOCHROME SENSOR - WHAT IS
THE DIFFERENCE
AUSFÜHRLICHER BERICHT: LEICA
M MONOCHROM
THE LEICA M9 MONOCHROM
LEICA M9 MONOCHROM REVIEW
No comments:
Post a Comment