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[I]The black and white Leica M Monochrom[/I]

The 1st of April was several weeks ago, so this is no joke; Leica has produced an 18 megapixel full frame version of its M-series rangefinder cameras that packs a mono-only sensor.

I can visualise a lot of people sratching their heads and asking themselves: "why?" But of course if you come from the pre-digital age of dark room photography, where black and white not only dominated but was a highly revered branch of photography, the Leica M Monochrom makes sense.

You have to experience a stunning black and white image, better still a great black and white print, to appreciate the magical quality of mono. It's quite easy to convert colour digital images to mono and with some skill the tonality of a mono image converted from colour can be tailored beautifully by adjusting the source colour channels which dictate the intensity of grey tones in the mono result.

Leica has decided that the best solution is to do away with colour altogether. The M Monochrom's sensor has no Bayer RGB filter. This does mean that there is no loss of resolution through the interpolation of primary colour pixels, which is a fact of life for almost all colour digital cameras apart from those using Foveon sensors.

The M Monochrom does promise exquisite resolution and detailing. Being a full frame sensor its pixel pitch is generous and so dynamic range should be very good. Noise is less of a concern with mono images and you can practically forget about colour problems like chromatic aberration.

As someone who has spent more hours in a dark room inhaling fixer and stop bath fumes than I care to remember in the never ending quest for a perfect black and white silver halide print, the Leica M Monochrom is certainly an object of fascination, even if it is likely to have a ridiculous price tag.

But can the M Monochrom match the flexibility of adjustment that mono images converted from colour offer? That's quite a big question that I feel hangs over the new mono Leica.