Have used this one for a few weeks now. Benefits
- very low noise, I even took some shots at 50,000 ISO which I would not dream on doing with our color cameras.
- It is also very light and easy to carry
- I find I can focus well with the range finder, even though it is a bit slower than auto focus. I do find framing to be a bit harder, because I cannot quite see everything in the range finder using glasses.
- Images are sharp and well high resolution.
- Nice menus and just plain fun to use.

Downsides
- I wish you could zoom in more on the image. It is almost impossible to verify focus on more complicated topics.
- When you magnify for focusing the screen refresh rate is surprisingly slow, this is where you need it the most. Feels as if it is about 10fps.
- Sometimes color would be useful of course.
- I wish you could see ISO and aperture in the rangefinder so you could adjust them while looking through it.
- I wish it had video too.

Over the years I shot and owned most of the digital M rangefinders. Image quality in black and white from the M11 Monochrom is IMO not better than with my Hasselblad X2D by conversion (mind that I'm not a high, above 3200, ISO shooter). It's all about the tonality, sharpness and desired print output.
There was an advantage with low megapixel count camera sensors back in the days of the first 16MPix Monochrom Leica. Much less so now that we passed 50MPix full frame and even more larger than full frame sensors. Creating a bw image with such a high MPix Bayer sensor with the ability to use the color channels now is a much stronger argument compared to dedicated monochrome sensors for most of us.
In the end one should buy a rangefinder, because of the rangefinder experience and nothing more.

No one ever seems to comment on how heavy these cameras are. A concern when you have the money but are suffering from arthritis ... :-(

The results I'm getting with the M10M are extremely satisfying.

I bought an M11 when one became available barely-used amidst the whole freezing panic. The output I'm getting from the M11 is simply wonderful. It's so good, I'm considering moving out of the Fujifilm GFX system to fund the purchase of an M11M.

But there's no urgency. I think the bump from 40 to 60 megapixels, while not insignificant, is less important to me at the print sizes I usually produce than the bump from 24 to 40 megapixels was (from the M246 to the M10M).

I understand that it's temptingly easy to lampoon the entire Leica lineup as digital jewelry for the photographic dilettante. I don't have time to waste refuting it. It's more important to shoot pictures than to talk about equipment.

It would be interesting to see potential differences between images taken with the M11 monochrome and a regular M11 after b/w-conversion.

I wonder whether the theoretical advantages of the monochrome camera in light gathering capabilities and sharpness do actually have a real-world impact when compared to b/w-converted images from the same sensor but with a Bayer-filter and subsequent demosaicing.

Some sort of head-to-head comparison would be awesome.

Possibly the dullest set of images I've ever seen - not the subjects, just the overall look like a 1950's TV.

While I can afford this, the blatant lack of versatility (for me) is too much to warrant owning it. But if someone wants this and enjoys using it, that's FANTASTIC!
Beautiful camera!

I once used the Monochrom 246 for a while. The IQ was astounding and the experience was classic Leica. As for this one, I can't imagine who would need 60 MP unless they were printing at insane sizes, but I guess even Leica feel the pressure to appeal to the lowest common denominator. ("Ugg, moar pixels, ugg, or I will fling my feces at you! Ugg!").

A beautiful and appealing camera, unfortunately way beyond my hobbyist budget. But LOL at all the ridiculous comments in this thread, mostly from people who are *nowhere near* its target audience!

I’m curious about the true demographic spread of Leica buyers. Joking aside about dentists and doctors, I would assume that Leica buyers really do use and appreciate their cameras for what they do. And of course, doctors and dentists and well heeled retirees also buy them. Or a Harley, or a Corvette - these are all aspirational things. I knew a guy with a Harley and all the cosplay leathers who trailered his bike to Sturgis so he could ride around town for about 20 miles, then trailered it home. Or a tricked out jacked up Jeep used for mall crawling. All fantasy, for the life you wish you had but not the one you’re actually stuck with.
What a very understated, purposeful looking camera.
But then they’ll go and make another contrived special edition and it will be my duty to make fun of it.

I'm consider getting this camera actually and probably 28mm f2 and 50mm f1.4 together with a macro lens, maybe from Laowa. Possibly the 90mm f4.0.

The main areas that are interesting for me:
- camera and lenses are much smaller than our Canon
- resolution is higher
- less noise
- lenses should be better than our Canon lenses
- monochrome means a bit sharper end result, I never liked the debayer pattern influence on sharpness.
- the process for me of photographing BW is better when you directly get a BW result without having to do a color conversion. I do not mind using color filters to experiment in the field to get the right look on the spot.
- for color I can just use our Canon cameras.
/ I do wish that you could capture video with it.

No red dot 🔴 No sale. Part of the fun of owning a Leica is sporting the iconic, signature, red dot. For the price, it should be included 😉

A beautiful piece of engineering but I can't say I was blown away by the example photos

monochrome cameras make users feel special and smug

I shot a lot of Leica digital rangefinders from the M9 on and especially enjoyed the M9 Monochrom and the M246 Monochrom when street photography was my joy.
The original Monochrom with its 16 MPix made a lot of sense with the resulting perceived resolution advantage and increased tonality back then in comparison to bayer sensor cameras and their conversions to bw.
Over the years with ever increasing MPix counts well over 50 MPix I found dramatically decreasing value on IQ using a Leica Monochrom camera (mind that I am not shooting high ISO photography) in comparison. Using color channels to convert to bw AND having more than enough resolution and outstanding tonality with my Hasselblad X2D never makes me miss a Leica Monochrom ever again.

I predict this means there will be an “M11P” with the 256gb internal memory, sapphire glass LCD, and big gnarly Home Depot slotted-head screw on the front as soon as they've milked the online photo media for every possible drop of publicity for the Monochrom. Leica has the be the world's easiest camera company to run — you just iterate the same three variations over and over and watch the money roll in…

I don’t know… the images looks a bit colorless.

This is a personal view but as someone who used an M3 for a week way back in my film days, I hated the Range Finder view. After a week I was happy to return to my SLR.

There are only two types of photographers out there. Those who shoot a Leica, and those who don't. They will change over time too. Rarely from Leica to non-Leica I believe. No your D-lux or Q2 007 limited editions don't count.

Well, not impressed with the technical quality of the samples. Not seeing any real advantage over B&W images created via post processing from a color sensor.

At that price, if I want to use a B&W rangefinder I'll grab my Ricoh 500G instead!

Thanks Leica! Seeing this
- first made me laugh... again... at the notion of a BW sensor architecture giving perceptibly better results than your regular sensor setup
- then it made me sad again that dpreview is closing. I'll be missing the entertainment value of vanity

Seriously though, apart from the Brand, which I fully understand is worth it to carry around, all this makes me wonder if BW enthusiasts have fully explored the capabilities of desaturation and/or the ultra bonus of color channel adjustments on a color - BW image.

It should come with Red, Green, and Cyan filters to allow you to shoot color.

Over hyped camera from Leica again.

A "sapphire glass layer" eh? So we can expect scratches at a level 8 with deeper grooves at a level 9?

Does this camera have white balance adjustment?

I Was sceptic to rhese monochrome Leicas until i Borrowed one and fel in love with photography again .

Only $9,195.00.

That's what you look at on your credit card bill after the honeymoon period wears off.

Hmm....looking at the DPR sample images, and owning an M10M, I'm not convinced. They all look underexposed to me, and not just by a tad. Is this on purpose? What happend? Based on what I see at this point I don't see a compelling need to upgrade. Waiting for additional reviews I guess, but the 40MP Sensor with the manual focus lenses might be the sweet spot for my aging eyes...

Another fantastic article of a webpage that should never disappear because it has so many interesting articles. Hint hint, nudge, nudge, say no more... :)

Other cameras and photo websites (!) come and go, but the Leica M continues forever.

I expected more detailed jpegs. Perhaps the lack of grain gives this impression. I would probably add grain if printing, these look too perfect for my taste.

I went through a Leica phase. I suppose I’m still in it, since I still have all my cameras and lenses. But I stopped buying the digital bodies with the M9 — they’re just digital cameras with basically the same (or worse) tech as others, which means they get obsolete just as quickly and are just as fragile too. The mechanical M cameras were technically excellent — and still are. I even have a (pre M3) IIIf which still works.

For me the main and massive advantage of the Leicas is the size and unobtrusiveness of the camera plus lens. Maybe it’s just me, but I simply _can’t_ do street photography with my Nikon Z and its coke-can lenses (even the primes are enormous). I’ve taken portraits of people from 3 feet without them noticing. I can’t do that when stuffing a zoom lens up their nostrils… :-/

A very fine camera indeed. Let's hope there will be a whole review about it.

There are a lot of people with bricked M11 cameras....the referenced YouTube guy is definitely not an outlier.
On the dpreview Leica Forum there was (still is ?) A while 70 page thread about this issue....funny how none of the reviewers ever mention anything like that.
I was in the market for an M11 but after hearing too many reports of problems and seeing too many used ones for sale I gave up on that idea....
And I am not a Leica hater, I own a Q2M which I love....but even then I still prefer to use converted color files for my BW images....the Q2M I use only for low light street photography at night now, for that it is awesome....

Maybe it is my eyes, or my monitor or just a matter of taste, but most of the images in the sample gallery look underexposed.

*** What I really like to see ***

Siede by side comparison of photos with the Leica monochrome versus Leica normal-chrome. Are the allegedly better tonality and resolution really visible? And how much do we lose by tossing out all the color info and therefore not being able to adjust channels separately during the conversion.

PLEASE post such comparison, if possible.