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I happened to discover this online essay today - the author offers some interesting insights into the M246 Monochrom and why it is still a viable choice: Why I bought a Leica M246 Monochrom https://mwwphotography.co.uk/blog/leicam246monochrom

Something bad just happened on my first day of a trip to China. After shooting normally for nearly a day, my M246 start to malfunction. 1. live view shows NO live view - lens cap is off of course. Other things, like built in level, shutter speed, iso, etc, shows properly. 2. automatic shutter speed goes to 32 seconds regardless the light condition. If feels like the sensor has been blocked by something - again the lens cap is off. 3. no matter the shutter is on auto, or manually set to any figure, there is no release of shutter. Ie, the shutter is not working. 4 the play function works well I tried to: - insert a new a SD CARD and format it - insert a fully recharged battery - tried system reset the problem stayed. I tried to use sensor cleaning function but the shutter is not opening. Just before the trip, the camera was sent to Leica Melbourne for a sensor clean. it seemed to work well after, but no extensive testing had been done before the trip. Now I don't know what to do as I don't have a backup camera Any suggestions please?

John Brockliss brings us a well reasoned essay on monochrome photography with the M cameras that are made specifically for this pursuit: The Leica M Monochrom family. The Q2 Monochrom is not mentioned, but it should be looked at closely by those who want to commit to black and white photography by digital means. The Q2 is a powerful tool, whether you choose the color or Monochrom variant. I got my M10 Monochrom in July of 2020 out of a desire to do more in black and white photography, and because I saw the M10 Mono as a breed apart, a special camera. Spring is the time for color shooting, with flowering trees in full bloom so I have been shooting color of late. Even with my desire to do more exploration of the digital black and white realm, I have been reluctant to commit to the Monochrom and black and white imaging exclusively. As I read, re-read and reflect on this essay, I'm thinking my reluctance to making that commitment may eventually weaken.

Today i experienced for the second time that my Monochrom M246 failed to capture an image. It triggered as usual, it indicates the right shutter time in playback mode but nothing was captured/registered in the image. It's just a blank (read black) unexposed picture. I've tried to google this but did not find anything about this problem, that's why i'm trying here. Nothing was captured in the sensor and it's only a black picture with no data recorded at all. Has anyone in this forum experienced something like this?

man with angel hair : ) leica 246 monchrom | summilux asph. 50mm

I'm fortunate to own all three Monochrom's. Here are a few thoughts on the M10-Monochrom, and the others, after ten days with Leica's latest. A Trifecta of Monochrom's (I regret having to make it a link, rather than posting here directly... but I believe my little sojourn exceeds forum size limits).

When a user get a Leica M body at 3x the price of a Sony or Nikon, we at least expect quality level to go with the price tag. With my M10 (2018) and M246 (2016) the least stressed parts start to fail one after another.. M10 got a cracked key frame and M246's frameline selector, which is NEVER used, is fallen off... This is more fagile than my son's LEGO... Just repaired M10, Leica judged unilaterally it is NOT under warranty so 430EUR bill just paid... then M246 got this drama. Note I am not even professional photographer and only shoot in hobby times.... Just wonder am I just the unlucky one out of distribution or any user struggling with similar bizzar M camera failures? Leica used to be life long campanion, I am afraid the latest models might end up staying at Leica service center longer than in my camera bag...

I did a search here on the Forum to see if there was any history or discussion on an interesting problem I was having with my M Monochrom 246 but found nothing. Therefore, I thought I would document my experience for the record. My issue was that the shutter was randomly misfiring, either too fast or too slow. This was producing some "unusual" results with some exposures unpredictably wildly off the mark. In my blind trust of Leica, I was a bit slow to conclude that the problem was with the camera rather than me. At first, I could not understand how such varying results could be produced in aperture-priority mode but gradually began to suspect the shutter. I took a series of shots of the same scene and the same lighting, with the same aperture, but with a manually-selected shutter speed both in "S" and "C" modes. As it turned out, the shutter speeds for each image file were all over the place with the minority at the actual set speed. Furthermore, it did not seem to matter what shutter speed was selected and, of course, it did not matter what lens was on the camera. When I wrote to Leica Camera USA describing my situation, I got an answer in pretty short order with the suggestion to do a camera Reset. This worked! The Reset function apparently is a like a o/s reboot on a computer which sadly had not occurred to me as a possible solution. Of course, all my menu-driven customizations were wiped out with the camera reverting to the factory default but that was a small price to pay to have normal shutter operation restored. Anyone else seen this?

Its now nearly a year since I purchased the M246, and I was thinking to take a quick look back at how my experience has been with this camera. It was during a relative cold and dark period of the winter last year here in Norway that I was evaluating what I could do to enhance my photographic interests and capabilities. At the time I was using the Sony system, which to be fair I was very happy with. The sensors were impressive, and the lens setup had become very good, especially when taking into account all the amazing lenses from Leica and other producers that could be used with a simple adapter. Still, there was something intriguing about owning and using an M. I had always looked at Leica cameras as somewhat mystique. One the one hand I found them simple and elegant - which is stark contrast to Sony cameras. On the other hand I wondered why people would actually pay to not have features that I found so important for a modern camera. A simple thing like not having to do a black screen after a long exposure or the ability to move around the focus point in an electronic view finder was to me almost a must at the time. But I wanted to try a Leica - to find out what the fuzz was all about. I had a few choices of course. I could opt for an old M9, but knew that I would despise its low ISO capabilities. The M240 was nice, but I didn’t really see how it would change my photos from what I achieved with my Sony. So I opted for a special camera instead, a camera that only saw things in black and white and had its speciality in distinguishing between light and dark. As soon as I tried the camera I was in love. Never before had I pressed such a smooth shutter. The body was sturdy, with no plastics. Everything was manual, and apart from ISO i could always see the settings before pressing the shutter. The camera felt good to hold, and more importantly the rangefinder was a joy to use. I quickly learned that I was just as right-eyed as left-eyed, while I have always used my left eye for photography. And somewhat surprisingly, I seldom saw the need for an electronic viewfinder, and all other quirks, techs and specs from the Sony camera soon became obsolete. It didn’t take long before I discovered that the M246 was a very special camera, not only because it was only in black and white, but also because it thrived in whether conditions that most cameras despised. Not long after I purchased the M246 I travelled to Lofoten for a week with photography. Originally I hadn’t planned to use the Leica that much, but in the end 85 percent of the photos I took that week was with the M246. The key was the weather. Every day was stormy, and the weather conditions were the worst I have ever experienced. The wind was so strong that a tripod became unusable for large periods at the time, and snowstorm after snowstorm came in from the north, forcing me to run for shelter every 10 minutes. Pockets of sun were just that, pockets that lasted for minutes before they were overrun by a new snowstorm. It was in this weather I discovered why the M246 was so special. The camera loved bad weather. The darkness, the storms and the wind was captured in a beautiful way that no other camera could capture. That I only had black and white made the images more pure and raw, thereby amplifying the mood created from the lack of light. It is this that is special for the M Monochrom. It shines when light is scarce, whereas most cameras shine when light is abundant. This has opened up a whole new world of photographic perspectives for me. Since then I have never looked back. I now see shapes and light in a completely different way, and its all thanks to the M246. ISO capabilities are incredible, and it is fantastic to be able to take photos with ISO up to 10 000 without really sacrificing contrast or details. I truly believe that I have become a better photographer after acquiring it. At least I find it much more inspiring to plan new trips and projects. Are there things about the camera that bothers me? Of course. Like several others have mentioned on this forum, its easy to burn highlights with the M246. This has not been a major problem for me, because I just avoid overexposing in the way I have done with other digital cameras. Besides, the level of details in the shadows is very impressive, and its easy to adjust for under exposure in post-processing. I still miss being able to move around the focus point when using the EVF, but thats also only a minor issue as I most often use the rangefinder. Thanks for reading, and now some photos.

Just found out that my next M246 suffers from sensor issues. My first M246 was replaced because there was an error with the sensor on the first one, and now it's happening all over with the M246 which replaced the first one with sensor error; i have to send my next M246 to service. Three years ago i jumped in the water: I switched to Leica from Nikon (and a short period with Canon) after 25 years without any techinical faults or issues what so ever, and i never looked back. That is until now, because i'm wondering if i really want to stay with Leica after these experiences after all. Three years with severe errors on two different digital bodies (sensors). - Is this sufficent enough? - What would you expect from Leica's customer service in this matter? - Would you go the other way around again, turn the back on Leica and return to Nikon based upon the experiences these (first) three years? Or shall i just tolerate this?

In the street of Khiva Ouzbekistan M246/35mm Gilbert Vasseur

Boston's Italian North End, M246, 21mm SEM, B&W Yellow Filter Thanks for looking.

I just made a firmware upgrade on my less than 1y old and barely used M246 (I completely lost the mojo on the MM after having had to swap my MM to the inferior M246). Granted I use the LCD very, very little if at all (changing ISO, formatting SD cards and correcting the internal clock are pretty much the only times when I use the LCD). So I never noticed any issue with the LCD - I just never use it enough. When I started the firmware update procedure (firmware file on SD card, switching the camera on while holding the "info" button), I noticed a green colored surrounding on the LCD screen very similar in pattern to the often reported M8 LCD "coffee stain" issues. The "rectangle shifting image" while the firmware updated made this very obvious and I could not see this issue on the youtube videos you can find showing the firmware upgrade process. Well, my camera is a German model and I will not be able to show and ask about this until the next trip to Europe - any experience with broken M246 LCD screens is very welcome. And btw - the exposure compensation nonsense in the viewfinder is still there after the firmware update? Lets see if the camera at least can keep the time in sync better than an hour glass operated by a drunk sailor after the FW update (maybe the LCD is worn out by all that time setting to correct for the miserable time keeping)?

Hallo allerseits. In den vergangenen Monaten musste ich immer wieder feststellen, dass doch recht viele M246 als gebraucht verkauft werden/wurden. Die Preise sind entsprechend gesunken und ich frage mich, warum wohl ihre Besitzer die MM2 wieder loswerden wollen. Teilweise mit unglaublich wenigen Auslösungen, nach wenigen Wochen/Monaten. So viele Zahnarztfrauen kann es doch gar nicht geben Kurz nach der Einführung hat selbst Thorsten van Overgaard seine M246 wieder verkauft. Komisch. Ich glaube die Anzeige war damals hier online? Ich bin mit meiner M246 sehr zufrieden und werde sie nicht verkaufen. Daher wird mich der Preisverfall nicht treffen Sie ist meine einzige digitale M und ich vermisse nichts. Übrigens meine erste neue, frisch aus dem Laden. Vielleicht habe ich auch deshalb so eine "besondere Beziehung" zu ihr? Trotzdem würde ich gerne wissen, was ihr von der M246 haltet, warum ihr sie verkauft (habt) usw... Oder irre ich mich vielleicht und das sind ganz normale Verkaufszahlen? Ist euch das evtl. auch aufgefallen? Grüße vom Micha

Preparing food for his milk cows. MM246, 28mm Cron

We spent some days in Italy to attend a wedding in Florence. In Rome, smoking waiting for his wife, MM 246 28mm Summicron

Crazy. I did a studio shoot with the M246 and a 75 APO-Summicron. Light bank angled to the camera. The 75 flared like crazy... the 50 Summilux-ASPH didn't flare at all! Anyway, I tried LR6 "dehaze" and the results are impressive. That's all. Regards, Dean

It seems that EyeFi cards (orange ones) are incompatible with the M246. It worked perfectly with my m240. In my Ricoh GR the card is working and wifi signal detectable, files can be transferred. Same card in the M246 and no WiFi signal. Anyone same experience ?

Among the many possible answers to the first question – Why Leica? – my preference to the M-system has been the relatively small size and low weight of the bodies and the majority of lenses, the overall superb optical quality ranging from ultra wide-angle to medium telephoto, including a unique set of fast lenses, the brilliant optical viewfinder (when properly calibrated) and, with the digital Ms, mostly fine-quality, full-format sensors. Overall, the system has the feeling of being an instrument, not some plastic-stuff put together in millions of copies. The price of the instrument package is high. But instruments made in the western world are seldom cheap, so perhaps the price is what one could expect. And the majority of lenses last (almost) forever. When bodies and lenses work as they are supposed to, it’s a real joy to use the M-system. Now and then lenses and/or bodies need calibration or other adjustments or fixes or even being rebuilt. That’s all fine, like for most instruments. Within reasonable limits, that is. This leads to the second question: Why, Leica? First a backdrop: I have owned the last four incarnations of the digital M: M9, MM, M240 and M246. All of these, except the MM, were purchased new. The experiences with the new purchases are as follows: The rangefinder of the M9 was slightly off out of the box. I could live with this for some time, but I got eventually the rangefinder adjusted by Kamera-Service/van Manen during a visit to the Netherlands (handed in one afternoon, picked-up the following day). After that, the body worked as it should; with the feeling of having an instrument in my hands. Great! I sold the body when I bought the M240. The rangefinder of the M240 was also slightly off out of the box. In addition, the red digital numbers in the viewfinder didn’t work properly; typically only parts of the information were shown. The latter was not a big deal, but I wanted to get this error fixed. So I sent the M240 to Leica for adjustment and repair via the Norwegian Leica dealer. The battery charger was also sent to Leica; this did not charge properly, likely because of poor contact between the charger and the power cable. An early incarnation of 50APO was also returned to Leica in this batch – for a check and a possible rebuild linked to numerously reported problems with early units of this (otherwise) brilliant lens. The above package was shipped in mid April. A few weeks ago I picked up a brand new M246 in a local store. The rangefinder was way off, actually so off that it was next to hopeless to use the rangefinder at large apertures. Again, off to Leica for adjustment via the Norwegian dealer. In summary, both M240 and M246 are for the time being at Leica for adjustment/repair due to failure(s) out of the box. The adjustment/repair of the M240 (+50APO) will likely take 3 months. If I am lucky, I might get the M240 and/or the 50APO before I head for this year’s summer vacation. I have no idea when I can expect to get the M246 back from Leica. Therefore my question: Why, Leica? Why don’t you do a proper check of the bodies leaving the factory? Shouldn’t the rangefinder be as easily checked and rechecked on your side as by users (like me) on the purchasing side? Particularly now with focus peaking on the digital M? I would guess that the cost of adjustment/repairs during warranty must be non-trivial. Not to mention the frustration on the consumer's side. I simply don’t get it. Given the premium price – wouldn’t it be reasonable that bodies that are off out of the box get a priority that reduces the repair waiting time on your side? Alternatively, what with an option to offer a body for rent (possibly with a deposit or for a modest cost) during the repair time when the bodies are off out of the box? Or a replacement? From a user’s side, the absolutely most useless and expensive bodies/lenses are those that are being off for a repair for an extended period of time because of sloppy quality check on the factory side. It’s also frustrating to spend time on contacting dealers and service agencies with typically vague and non-definite responses. Leica – as any brand – exists because of the customers, not vice versa. I apologise for taking your time, but this is a bit more frustrating than I am comfortable with. Postscript: The Norwegian dealer states that they will likely be able to provide a body when I head for vacation. This is fine (given that the body is properly working, including a calibrated rangefinder). But the question - Why, Leica? - remains valid. And in the mean time, no body/bodies to use. Grrr... PS2: The attached images illustrate the position of the focus based in the rangefinder (assisted with a viewfinder loupe) and the digital focus peaking with 10x magnification. The focus should be on the last "I" in "MODIGLIANI", and the photo with the digital focus is spot on. Additional tests have been done with other lenses with similar result; the rangefinder is way off and rather useless for accurate focusing. (M246, 90 Summicron, f2, on tripod, no post-processing except reduced image size).

I shot these test images a few weeks back but only recently had the chance to compile them into a meaningful article. Up for your viewing pleasure is a comprehensive comparison of the MM246 vs. the M9M vs. the M240 converted to B&W, using the 50 APO, on a static still life subject under controlled conditions. I know I'm a little late to the party as others have been putting out some interesting and well-done comparisons. For my version of the test, I aimed to compare optimized images from each camera at each ISO level against one another. I like to take a real world approach and in my world, I don't look at out of camera results. Part of the evaluation of a camera should be how it responds to post processing and the final result, no? B&W ISO Showdown: Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) vs. M Monochrom (M9) vs. M (Typ 240) Have a look and let me know what you think. Thanks!