We’re reliably informed that you’re not a fan of cameras unless you own a Leica. Or, at the very least, wish you had the sort of money that would permit that. The new Leica M11, recently announced by the company, is due to land in South Africa soon. You can own one, but you’ll first have to meet a nigh-on R200,000 price tag.
The good news is that you’ll still be able to use your M-mount lenses. The bad news is that you’ll have to buy some if you don’t have any in storage. Either way, here’s why you should be keen on this expensive snapper.
What you want a Leica M11
We all know that megapixel count isn’t everything, but the Leica M11 packs a 60MP full-frame sensor anyway. It’s capable of three resolutions — one of the company’s selling points for this one. 60MP, 36MP or 18MP stills are possible, in both DNG RAW or JPG. The camera is manual-focus-only, and photographers may use either the optical rangefinder or 3in touchscreen display to frame their shot.
The hardware uses a Maestro-III image processor and 3GB of buffer memory for a 4.5 frames-per-second burst shot. It’s also able to write both its supported file formats simultaneously — onto different storage media, if that’s your thing. There’s 64GB of storage onboard, in case you leave home without your high-speed SDs.
Sensitivity runs from ISO 64 to 50 000, for a total of fifteen stops. That’s one more than the Leica M10, for those playing the home game. Shutter speeds are equally mental — mechanical is capable of up to up to 1/4000th of a second. Electronic? That goes all the way up to 1/16,000 of a second, and it’s completely silent.
The Leica M11 also has a larger battery capacity than the M10 — 64% more, according to the company. It charges via USB-C, which is always handy, and Leica has ditched the baseplate, “to offer photographers easy direct access to the battery, SD card, and all-new USB-C port.”
You can pre-order both the Silver Chrome and Black Chrome versions of Leica’s newest slab of camera engineering. Sure, you’re paying R160,000 for the pleasure and there’s no launch date. But if you’ve got that kind of money to throw around, odds are you don’t mind waiting for your Leica M11 to arrive.
