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How well is the M Monochrom selling?

It's interesting to see how the Mono sells and resells after the M240 comes out. All the reviews indicate that the new M has B&W capabilities similar to that of the Mono. Perhaps other than true purists it's hard to justify a Mono purchase going forward... but again, it's designed for purists.

I'm interested to hear what other Mono owners are thinking. Would you trade yours in for the new M? If many of us think that way it will create a glut and lower the resell value. I think Leica will decrease the production for Mono even further after the new M comes out, it'll be come a truly unique cult item, like the Phase Archromatic.
I seriously doubt I will ever trade my Monochrom for the new M, may be that will be the case for the my M9-P, I will see.
The simple fact that the Monochrom file does not have to go through the demosaicing and filtering algorithms gives to it a rendering that in my view is subjectively superior and certainly unique.
I was reluctant before, because I thought that missing the RGB information was going to be a serious limitation in the post processing, but I found afterwards that this is really not the case.
 

animefx

New member
With Ming's positive review of the M 240 especially with the comment that B&W files are nearly on the M Monochrom level, it will be interesting to see if demand for the Monochrom tapers off some especially since the M240 is less expensive.
 

jstaben

Member
The Monochrom is and always will be a niche product. For the vast majority of people, it makes more sense to buy a color camera and convert. That was and won't change now. We all knew that the M240 would bring better performance but I was actually pleasantly surprised that for pure B&W shooting the Monochrom still will be king. ISO performance goes up to 10000 in normal mode vs. 6400 as a "push" option in the M240. That's a big difference.

The biggest thing however is that there is a fundamental difference in experience using a B&W camera. I'd guess that it's hard to understand but shooting with a color camera in B&W mode you always have that crutch to fall back on. Shooting with a Monochrom camera is really one for "purists" but it's almost an emotional response that one gets with it. I'd recommend someone rents one really before dropping huge money on it.

The M240 reviews are very favorable, but the Monochrom still holds some considerable advantages in some areas over it. There are trade offs for sure, but such is life. I wouldn't trade in my Monochrom until the next "Monochrom" is released!
 
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