This is my introduction to the NEW Leica M11 Monochrom. The first part of the video starts with a quick unboxing, then setting up the camera with most essential settings, followed by lots of sample images from the Leica M10 Monochrom and the Leica M11 Monochrom with my thoughts on why black & white photography is beautiful and why it makes sense to shoot with a native monochrom sensor. In the second part of the video I discuss sample images from the Leica M11 Monochrom, look into sharpness and dynamic range and compare the new Leica M11 Monochrom with the Leica M10 Monochrom and the Leica M11. The M11 Monochrom sample images are shot with four different Leica-M lenses.
Content:
00:00 Unboxing the new Leica M11 Monochrom
02:03 Battery and memory card loading
02:33 Switching the camera on for the first time – startup animation
03:24 Discussing the Leica M11 Monochrom vs the Leica M11
04:43 The Leica M11 Handgrip on the Leica M11 Mono vs M10 Mono
05:59 Leica M11 Mono design vs Leica M10 Mono design
07:01 Quick tour through the most essential settings in the menu
11:52 My essential settings for two custom buttons
13:04 Sample images: why shooting with a monochrom sensor?
16:50 Four Leica-M lenses shot on the new Leica M11 Monochrom
19:13 Sample images, comparisons, sharpness, dynamic range, etc.
21:35 New Leica M11 Mono vs Leica M10 Mono in a night shooting
24:14 New Leica M11 Mono vs Leica M11 in a night shooting
25:25 Shooting with a Neutral Density (ND) filter
26:27 Quick look into dynamic range for underexposed images
27:24 Black & White people photography with Leica Noctilux lenses
30:46 Conclusions and recommendations
Of course, this is just my “first impressions” video about the NEW Leica M11 Monochrom. In the next weeks I will look much deeper into the capabilities of the Leica M11 Mono – so stay tuned on my channel for new content, subscribe and turn on notifications.
See also other related videos on my channel just here:
LEICA M10 MONOCHROM Perspective Control for RAW and LPC Follow-up for LEICA M10-R, M10-P, M10-Mono
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yXVc-2tY7A&t=44s
Leica Noctilux-M 75mm f/1.25 on Leica M11 | MIND-BLOWING !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxVUrq3Sz70&t=663s
NEW Leica NOCTILUX 50mm f/1.2 ASPH 100pcs LIMITED EDITION
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvB5hc3ocQ
Shooting the NEW Leica Noctilux 50mm f/1.2 on the Leica M10-R
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnviFsGZpb8
Music (if applicable):
epidemicsound.com (licensed)
storyblocks.com (licensed)
motionarray.com (licensed)
#Leica #LeicaM11
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Your videos are absolutely wonderful. I watch every one. I love my M10 monochrom with 50mm apo but it’s good to see Leica pushing. I need another few years with this combination as it still humbles me. Best wishes from Australia.
Lovely speech in the middle about why to shoot in black and white.
Is this new camera also available in a traditional silver chrome finish, or just this matte black?
Glad to hear you say “don’t retire your M10Mono if you are satisfied”. It is unfortunate that Leica previously made mechanical cameras that lasted 20+ years but is now satisfied declaring their digital cameras “less than the best” after just 3 years.
What happened to the highlights in the night shot with the bridge, 22:11? They are all greyed out. Does the camera give this error, or did you do something wrong in Lightroom?
Hi. Thanks. We have also publish a quick comparison between the new M11 Monochrom and its predecessor, the M10M.
It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkX3pu_LFJ4&t=118s
13:58 I didn’t know that Leica considers a Mass Murderer like Che Guevara a “Legend"
Photo editors are going to love photographers who use cameras like this. They can crop away 75% of the pixels and still get a 15Mpx file. Insane.
Nice photos of Stephanie. I think you can definitely place the subject in the middle of the frame – this has been recognised for a long time. Stanley Kubrick loved doing this! Photo editors (yes, those pesky photo editors again) might prefer it, as they can recompose the shot as required.
One little trick I discovered for portraiture – reduce microcontrast in the RAW converter. Or use an old lens.
I have a quick question: because monochrom files do not require debayering, do they load faster while viewing them in a RAW converter? I imagine that a 60Mpx RAW image will be as CPU intensive as a 30Mpx Bayer image.
Thanks for the awesome video. How do you find the magenta cast in the M11? I simply can't unsee mine, unfortunately.
You need to do a comparison on higher ISO on a scene that has some lack of light. That is where you will see the significant difference between M11 and M11M. At ISO 125 with 1/4000 of shutter tells me that you have plenty of light in the scene. I would like to see some 800, 1600, … 20k ISO on a scene that genuinely require those ISOs for hand holding a 35/50mm.
What is sharper the Noctilux 50 1.2 or the Steel Rim 35?
Please consider doing an M11 and M11M image comparison both in black & white. I'm interested to see how you feel the M11 holds up to the M11M after its files are converted to B&W. Thank You.
I’d love one of these 🙂
Thank you very much for this review. As always it’s impeccable ! I have the Q2M that I adore, and since we sell Leica cameras, I tried for a few moments the M11 Monochrom we have on display, but I have to admit that I cannot get used to the rangefinder thing. My images are blurry, I don’t understand the technique. I succeeded in focusing through the LCD screen. I’ll try again tomorrow with a Visoflex that should be ok. A question for you : I find the raw files from my Q2M flat, are are the RAW files of the M11 in comparaison ?
Leica are beautifull but they just are like trophy you wear to show. A fujifilm or Sony full frame sensors are way better than the ones in Leica but the difference is the LEICA LENSES.
Wonderful video and very informative. I recently bought the m11 2 weeks back. But I only do black and white (fyi I'm not a pro). I still have the option of returning but then I do away with the option of color (even its 0.1% of the time). Would you recommend returning the m11 and going for the m11 M instead? Or are the differences not noticeable between the m11 and m11 M in post processing?
i was not blow away by the resolution difference between M11 and M11M ….
Great Video – as always 🙂 Merci viehmau! I felt the M11 vs. M11M part a bit short. I really would like to see a more in depth comparison there – preferably with somehow affordable lenses like the Summilux 35 and 50 or Voigtländers APO-Lanthar.
They should have called it M11M. Truly missed once in decades opportunity of a palindrome name.
Thanks for the very detailed comparison. The wide open 75mm around 30:17 , do you focus by rangefinder + magnifying ocular screwed to the ovf or do you use the evf to get that consistent precise sharp results on the eyes?