LEICA M11 MONOCHROM

The iconic black and white camera gets an update

- Gareth Bevan

https://leica-camera.com £8,300/$9,195 (body only)

How do you objectively compare a highly specialised camera aimed at photography connoisseurs with the best ‘regular’ mirrorless cameras? The Sony A7R V or Canon EOS R3 are technical marvels, while the Leica M11 Monochrom is a rangefinder design, manual-focus only, black-and-white sensor camera that doesn’t shoot video and costs nearly the same as those two cameras combined.

But Leica is renowned for its prestige design and build, and it attracts enthusiasts who aren’t after groundbreaking technology, but rather outstanding image quality and the pure joy of photography. More than any other camera on the market, Leica cameras require you to be a ‘proper’ photographer in the traditional sense. This is the closest you can get to a film-like experience in digital, and all the frustrations and triumphs that come with that.

The Monochrom line was introduced by Leica in 2012, and what could have been a niche too far has proved to be a big success. The M11 Monochrom is the fourth full version, and features the same 60MP sensor seen in the Leica M11, but with the colour and low-pass filters removed for added image clarity and reduced colour noise, plus a few design and build tweaks to take a step forward from the M10 Monochrom.

Key features