Leica Unveils Its First Black-And-White Digital Camera

Leica has announced the M-Monochrom, a new M-series digital rangefinder camera with an 18.01 million image pixel, black-and-white only, 35mm format CCD sensor. Digital Photography Review has published a brief hands-on preview of the camera. The sensor in the M-Monochrom is evidently a modified version of the color sensor in the M9 camera. The monochrome sensor has no color filter array, which improves sensitivity and, because it requires no color demosaicing interpolation, promises substantially better resolution than an 18-megapixel color sensor. Like the M9, the M-Monochrom also does not use an anti-aliasing filter. The improved sensitivity has allowed Leica to raise the camera's maximum ISO to 10,000 from the 2,500 maximum of the M9. In most other respects, the M-Monochrom appears similar to the M9. The body-only M Monochrom is expected to retail for $7,970 when it hits stores (beginning with Leica's Washington DC showroom) in July. A new Leica APO-Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 ASPH prime lens will be available around the same time, for the modest sum of $7,195.