For $9,200, Leica’s M11 Offers the Promise of Museum-Ready Photos
The Leica M11 Monochrom.
Photographer: Takamasa Ota for Bloomberg Businessweek
If you think there’s the soul of a Robert Capa or Henri Cartier-Bresson lurking deep inside your creative heart, you might find it with Leica’s new $9,195 M11 Monochrom, the fifth entrant in the brand’s series of noncolor cameras. Leica’s sturdy bodies and sharp lenses have been the gold standard for photography since the company first released a portable 35 millimeter camera in 1925. The M11 harks back to those analog roots: It doesn’t have autofocus, and you must control the aperture by hand—though ISO and shutter speed can be set to automatic.
THE COMPETITION
• Although it has a smaller 26mp sensor, the $2,200 Pentax K-3 Mark III Monochrome still delivers luscious images. And it offers autofocus and image stabilization, features that the Leica (intentionally) lacks.