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Survey: Your opinion about the new LEICA M MONOCHROM


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What do you think about the LEICA M MONOCHROM?  

1,488 members have voted

  1. 1. What do you think about the LEICA M MONOCHROM?

    • Perfect camera for me! Where can I order?
      231
    • I'd like to have one but too expensive...
      745
    • Sounds interesting but nothing for me
      296
    • Not interested
      164
    • What a weird idea by Leica...
      112


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As I said on another post, this camera is incredibly limited. The market will be tiny. A camera that is already a niche product just went sub-niche. Only a small band of enthusiasts will find this camera useful. For pros, their editors or buyers want color. Existing software is already available that produces excellent B+W prints if that is what is desired.

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So now I need two cameras if I get the M9 Monochrom (Why didn't they call it the M9-M?), one for B&W and one for colour.

 

The reason I'm interested in a Leica M was to drop the weight of my SLR kit, not to cut the weight and multiply by 2. Sorry Leica this one isn't for me, I'd prefer the colour and convert to B&W if I need it.

 

It's an interesting idea and I hope it's very successful for the sake of the brand. I'm sure it will be and they will sell all they make, if not to photographers, then to the collectors out there.

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Apology accepted, have a nice evening.

 

Aside from agreeing with your above statements on the subject, I must also give friendly advice on not taking what Pico says too seriously. In a previous thread that is now closed, he tried to tell me what rank I held at my company and telling me that if Steve Jobs was alive, I would be fired. All this for me saying that Leica ain't no Apple. After a comment like that, how can he be taken more seriously than the tooth fairy?

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It is great to have choices among awesome cameras and lenses, it is the beauty of a free society :D

If some people don't like the M9-M, that is their own problem, nobody is forcing anyone to get one. :p

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Good point. I'd love to see a side-by-side comparison (at 100%) of pictures of the same scene made with M9M and M9 in grayscale.

 

Except that I don't care about seeing anything on a screen, 100% or otherwise (Sean Reid has already done that for us). I care about getting one for rent and making prints using my own gear and workflow. That's where the rubber meets the road for me.

 

Jeff

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Aside from agreeing with your above statements on the subject, I must also give friendly advice on not taking what Pico says too seriously. In a previous thread that is now closed, he tried to tell me what rank I held at my company and telling me that if Steve Jobs was alive, I would be fired. All this for me saying that Leica ain't no Apple. After a comment like that, how can he be taken more seriously than the tooth fairy?

 

The thread is closed? My bad? Sorry about that.

 

Really, I did not, I hope, say you would be fired. I was speaking of a different case, of an Apple representative being silly and nasty in-person, but suffice to say he was clearly wrong. (I had developed a media server and iTunes-like facilities that we put into operation years before iTunes and he was dissing me totally out of history, out of context. He was a fool.)

 

But you are right - don't take me too seriously. I do not lie, but I do have a wide range of 'tudes, mostly in good humor, but your Tooth Fairy remark is unacceptable. I AM the tooth fairy. Don't sleep with your mouth open tonight. I need sleep, too.

.

Edited by pico
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Except that I don't care about seeing anything on a screen, 100% or otherwise (Sean Reid has already done that for us). I care about getting one for rent and making prints using my own gear and workflow. That's where the rubber meets the road for me.

 

Jeff

 

Agreed. I only use my screen to process images for print, but viewing at 100% allows me to previsualize exactly how it will print (like examining a neg once-upon-a-time).

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It looks a very interesting camera, I don't see a space for it in my kit bag wether or not over time I would who knows, but I doubt it.

I think if I was realy into mono work a film M would be more practicle, a greater choice of character of print with the different films available.. You are kind of stuck with one film here and it's DR, which I doubt is anywhere near as good as film.

So it comes down to work effort again, you can't be bothered with film and what that requires from you, so you go digital and let the computer do it............ or something that looks a bit like it.

I'm sure some will make a living and build a reputation with the M9M, I can't help thinking that film would give a better result.

I would have one but I would not want to spend any money on one, no more than a good used M film camera, I don't see that happening for a long time.

 

Kevin.

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Here is my post from Steve Huff's website yesterday - "Man, this B&W sensor talk and innuendo is too much….I really want it, but just weeks after buying the 35 & 50 Lux will I end up being the first person to get divorced with “Leica” named in the proceedings….:-)"

 

After saying that and then seeing the subsequent announcement I think I'm safe for the time being!!

 

We need to see how the files compare with the other digital M's, this has already been mentioned on here. Also I want to see the M10 specification first, I have probably one more digital M purchase left in me before I have to let common sense prevail.....in the meantime I will treat myself to an M3

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I´m fine with my M9...... but for B&W enthusiasts the M Monochrome is the best tool of choice!

Beside that I´m happy about this "Reduce to the Max" move from leica, the M9 is a great special camera, the M Monochrome is the essence of it...... and a great addition in this market niche.

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If money wasn't a problem, yes I would like to buy it(!), there is something refreshing in my mind the simple way just going B&W, not struggle with colours. Just what I did in my youth. The simple almost primitive way, refreshing no alternatives (in this world we are loaded with alternatives here, there, everywhere, and our mind can't cope), and sort of concentrate of what really matters. But no, for the time being, no.

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What is the M9M?... a B&W camera.

 

B&W photographs certainly have a creative aspect that is unique to B&W. But, what draws me to great B&W photos, besides the artistic aspect, is the technical aspect. There is something about the tonal range of B&W that is seductive to my eye. Specifically, it is the smooth transition from zone to zone. When the tonal range is optimized in a well exposed negative the transitions from tone to tone can be so smooooth in a good print.

 

Something about that, for me, evokes a good feeling when viewing a print like that. Maybe, because it is closer to how my visual system works than, low DR photographs stretched to fill tonal range by resetting the black point and compressing the highlights. You can't overstate how important, technically, DR is in B&W photography.

 

The M9M has exactly one more EV than the M9. That isn't even close to what is available from, for example, the D800. So, from a DR standpoint I just don't think the M9M is going to produce the pleasing tonal range of newer sensor cameras. On this aspect I think Leica has failed by choosing a low DR sensor to produce images for a B&W camera.

 

As far as sharpness from the sensor, it has to be better than the M9 but, I don't think it is going to be huge. Certainly looking at Sean Reid's comparisons, it isn't much better. But, classic 35mm film was never completely about trying to achieve ultra fine grain. So, from this standpoint a little more resolving power than the M9 isn't a big deal but, I'll take it.

 

High ISO shots do look better than the M9, even more than a stop to my eye. To my eye they lack the blotchiness the color sensor imparts on the image. That is pleasing. I like that a lot. But then again, conversions from modern FF sensors still will beat the M9M high ISO shots because of less noise at high ISO to begin with.

 

So, Leica set out to make a B&W RF camera and I applaud them for that. It really is a nice camera, especially on M9 standards. If, money were no object I'd love to try it out. But, I'd rather have, for example, a D800E sensor in a M10 announced today. Then I could do my own conversions to B&W and produce even better images... if I choose.

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The OP talked about problems/questions with the use of filters. I think we will have to wait until someone shows us the effects of filters. And, I wonder, was it impossible to build filters (electronic) into the camera?

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