Leica M Monochrome

[Poki]

What do you think of the Leica M Monochrome? If you haven't heard about it: It's a 18 MP Black and White camera from Leica. The body seems to be exactly the same as the Leica M9, so again a rangefinder. It can be yours for 8000 dollar (I think), and is - according to Leica - the sharpest camera on the market. The samples seem to say that this is true, but then again, with a 5000 dollar cheaper Nikon D800E with 36MP you should be able to get about as much sharpness if you downsample.

What are your thoughts about this new camera (and it's crazy.. ähm.. Leica-like price)?

 

[davect01]

Seems to be an example of markup just because of the name.

It better be really impressive for $8000.00

 

[freddytto]

wow for 8000 bucks ,me llevo la nex7, la 50mm 1.8 y algunos lentes e-mount mas, o por lo menos la nikon D800 with 36.3MP FX-format CMOS sensor, Full HD 1080p video at 30/25/24p with stereo sound, class leading ISO range of 100-6400, expandable to 25,600, 4 fps burst rate and Advanced Scene Recognition System with 91,000-pixel RGB sensor. looks great too.

 

[Amin Sabet]

I think the images people are posting from it look fantastic and that the idea is a great one. It costs about the same as an M9P, so they aren't charging much extra for the R&D that went into it.

No way in the world that I would ever spend $7-8K on a camera (unless I win the Mega Millions jackpot), but I like the files enough that I would like to see Sony bring our a CFA-less version of one of their cameras. There's no reason a monochrome camera has to cost this much. I like to shoot color, but if the price were right I'd buy a monochrome body as a second camera.