Leica Monochrome 246: The Hubble for Photographers

 

Should you belong to the lucky people to own or to be able to buy a Leica Monochrome 246 you should be aware that you are not buying a photo camera for taking black & white photos. The Leica Monochrome 246 is not an ordinary photo camera. The Leica Monochrome 246 is, in my own thinking and experience, comparable to the Hubble telescope. It is a machine to absorb and record as much light and details as possible.

What I want to say: You have to be prepared to use Lightroom in its widest and most powerful faculties. The raw photos as they come out of the Leica Monochrome 246 are “disappointing”, because they are not meant to be photos. They are complex data crammed into a file and they need to be developed with the help of the best photo application you can find. Lightroom works miractles, but you have to be willing to experiment without fear and preconceived ideas.

While the manipulation of the raw photos taken with a Leica M 240, in my experience, will stay relatively close to the original picture, “photos” taken with the Leica Monochrome 246 offer an enormous freedom for experimentation and creative liberty, without running the risk of creating gimmicky photos.

If you go out with the Leica Monochrome 246 you are out to collect light particles like with a Hubble telescope, to find out afterwards, what actually was recorded. That makes the Leica Monochrome a very special and particularly fascinating machine. I should add:Not for everybody.

Some samples of Leica Monochrome 246, summicron 75 / 90