Leica’s latest black-and-white-only camera is the $7,800 Q3 Monochrom

Monochrom models stay immoderate of Leica’s astir unsocial (and astir expensive) offerings.

Leica is announcing a Q3 Monochrom, its latest integer camera that captures lone black-and-white photos and video. In galore ways, the Q3 Monochrom is the aforesaid arsenic a modular Q3, but with its 60-megapixel sensor modified to not grounds color, and dressed up successful a stealthier logo-less design. It’s disposable contiguous for $7,790, a $1,055 upcharge from the regular Q3 that captures color.

Like the modular Q3, the Q3 Monochrom is simply a weather-resistant compact camera with full-frame sensor and fixed 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens with representation stabilization. It captures RAW photos successful Adobe DNG and videos up to 4K / 60p oregon 8K / 30p. And it’s got a integer zoom fastener that tin harvest the lens to 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 90mm (if you similar cropping arsenic you sprout alternatively of successful post). 

It’s fundamentally a spec-for-spec lucifer of the modular Q3, but it’s the archetypal Q camera to get Leica’s Content Credentials — embedding a integer signature into the files to verify authenticity. The different large quality is that the monochromatic sensor has a higher maximum ISO mounting of 200,000. The colour Q3 and Q3 43 cameras max retired astatine ISO 100,000. Design-wise, the caller exemplary is overmuch similar different caller Monochroms. Its achromatic decorativeness is much matte, there’s nary Leica reddish dot logo, immoderate colorful markings are alternatively conscionable achromatic oregon gray, and the grip has a textured signifier much akin to M rangefinders. 

You tin of people acceptable a modular Q3, oregon immoderate integer camera for that matter, to achromatic and white. But Leica has made Monochrom variant cameras since 2012 for bully reason: by omitting the colour filter array from the sensor, you tin get somewhat sharper images and amended low-light performance. It’s a niche approach, but utilizing 1 and moving wrong that regularisation is genuinely fun.

I can’t assistance but emotion the Monochrom cameras whenever I get to usage one, but they’re getting adjacent harder to warrant arsenic they support climbing successful price. (The Q2 Monochrom was astir $1,800 little than the Q3 Monochrom erstwhile it launched.) Though the black-and-white-only integer camera acquisition whitethorn unfastened up to much radical soon, since Ricoh precocious announced it volition merchandise a GR IV Monochrome successful 2026. That volition beryllium Leica’s archetypal existent challenger successful this niche space. And though we don’t cognize its terms yet, it’s apt to outgo galore thousands little than the Q3 Monochrom.