German purveyor of fine cameras and lenses, Leica, has announced the latest addition to its legendary M10 family – the Leica M10-R.
The camera’s headline feature is a newly developed full-frame CMOS sensor giving a maximum resolution of over 40 megapixels – 40.89MP to be precise, with 7864x5200px files. Combined with some equally lovely Leica M-fit glass this is going to mean flawlessly sharp details and colour, which the camera also promising reduced noise and a wider dynamic range from its 14-bit DNG Raw files.
The new M10’s ‘R’ presumably stands for Resolution. But it could also be ‘Really expensive’ as it’s priced at a whopping £7,100. At least you know it’s made in Germany at the Leica factory in Wetzlar, which is renowned for its dedication to quality and precision, and it’s sure to be a fantastically well made and durable lump of photographic loveliness.
The M10-R has an all-metal diecast magnesium body, with synthetic leather covering, and brass top panel and base plates, finished in black or silver chrome plate. And keeping up the high-quality trend, its 3in 1,036,800 dot LCD monitor has a scratch-resistant Gorilla glass cover. The M10-R measures 139×38.5x80mm, so it’s pretty conveniently sized, and weighs only 660g with its battery. Still, £7100, and that’s without a lens…
Anyway, if you can swallow the price, as well as allowing superbly detailed images, the new high-resolution sensor is also going to let you crop into shots a lot more heavily, which if you’re using if for on-the-go subjects like street shooting and run-and-gun documentary work, is no bad thing. On the same subject, the M10-R apparently uses an identical shutter to the M10-P, which is both very quiet and operates with minimal vibration to reduce the risk of camera shake.
The M10-R has an ISO range of 100 to 50000 with a useful Auto mode, and its maximum exposure time has been increased to an impressive 16 minutes, allowing a lot more light gathering in nightscapes and low-light shots.
Check out these galleries of shots taken with the new Leica M10-R while you wait for the bank manager to call you back…
