Since I’m not able to review the Leica M Monochrom for you myself, I thought I could at least put together a collection of reviews which are already out there so you can get an idea of the camera. I’m sure there will be a lot more in the next few weeks, but since then here you go:

L-Camera Blog
Review (de)
Video review (de)

Steve Huff
One hour with the Leica M Monochrom
Full Size Images

Jonathan Slack Review

dpreview.com Hands-on Preview

The Luminous Landscape Review

Bellamy Hunt Testing the M9-M

ShootTokyo Leica M9-M Photos

Steve Huff:

I hate to say it as I love Leica and the guys that work there but I have to say the event was a bit on the dull and lackluster side. Sure there were drinks, food and people to mingle with but the overall presentations were lacking. Not a big deal but I remember a few occasions yawning as it dragged on and on it seems. We were all there for the announcements and the way they were announced was also a bit on the dull side.

So I wasn’t the only one who had to yawn. That’s good and bad.
Steve also makes a few other good points regarding the Leica event and he got to shoot the M Monochrom for about an hour and shows some photos. Head over there and read the whole piece.

So. The Leica Event ‚Das Wesentliche‘ is over and all of the rumors where true. Leica announced the Leica M Monochrom, which only shoots black and white images, but with really great image quality and much better low light performance than the M9. There is also a new lens, the APO-SUMMICRON-M 1:2/50 mm ASPH.
Furthermore there is a new X camera, the X2 and a new V-LUX. You can read about the details here. Leica also announced a Special Edition of the M9-P, the Hermès Editon.

So the M MONOCHROM seems to be pretty cool, altough we not really got to hear much about it. The presentation was really bad in my opinion, everything seemed a bit awkward.

The rest of the evening was good. Kai, Christoph and me talked a lot about all things cameras, drank wine and met some really nice people of Leica.
Today I will walk the streets of Berlin and try to take some decent photographs and also meet up with a few people.

Thank you Leica and I hope we’ll meet again in the future.