Why the M10M

The Leica M10 Monochrom was announced on January 17th 2020 and sold soon after. I however only got it a few years later, as I often do with Leica M bodies. I’ve wanted a Monochrom Leica since the original M9M came out. But at that time I was out of the Leica M system and only used the Leica S line-up of cameras. The reason I waited for the M10M over the previous M Monochrom (Typ 246) was that I really enjoyed the often overlooked advancements Leica made with the Leica M10 over the M (Typ 240). A much better viewfinder, which makes accurately focusing easier. The form factor of the M10 and later bodies is also a lot nicer in my opinion. But the technical advancements on the M10 and later models are what mattered to me.

The M10M is based on the M10P so it has all the similar feature upgrades compared to the normal M10. A more quiet shutter, touch screen, and some other nice to haves. But of course with a slight different ‘Monochrom’ finish and a different sensor.

When picking up a M10 or M10M (or later models) you notice it feels nicer in hand than the previous models, but the big advantage which you may not even notice at first is how much better the viewfinder is compared to the M8, M9, M (Typ 240) etc. It makes focusing fast lenses, like the Leica Noctilux-M 50mm ASPH. or longer lenses like the Leica APO-Summicron-M 90mm etc. a lot more accurate and easy. I’ve never liked using those lenses on the older bodies, not because the body and lens were not adjusted properly for each other, but simply due to the mechanical limitations of the older rangefinder and viewfinder magnification.

Getting used to using the M10M

Using the M10 Monochrom is of course the same as any other Leica M camera. The big noticeable difference during picture taking is that I no longer care about the ISO values. On the M10 I am still making sure I don’t go too high, or you get colour noise and a reduced dynamic range. With the M10M I have Auto ISO set to max 6400 and honestly I hardly see the difference between ISO 400 and 3200, only above 3200 do you start seeing a slight noise. But it’s so faint it is barely worth mentioning, and dare I say: adds to the image.

I usually add a yellow filter on my lenses when doing outdoor photography, the M10M has a quite neutral/flat spectral sensitivity and this helps adding some contrast. Unlikes some film types I often use, like ILFORD FP4+, Pan F+, or Kodak TRI-X etc. developed in Rodinal or D76 for the punchy contrasty look it gives me. The M10M has a more neutral lower contrast rendering in its DNG files or an almost linear spectral response. This makes the effect of the color filter’s less pronounced than on the aforementioned film stocks.

For striking dark skies a red filter works really well, but I’ve noticed that on most non APO lenses this shifts the focus enough that you get out of focus images when using the rangefinder versus live-view. Similarly but not as strong as what you’d expect with IR filters.

The files

When importing the DNG files into Adobe Lightroom, they look a little more flat than on the built in screen of the camera. Which annoyed me a bit at first. Editing the images is in one way easier than colour images, but on the other hand you have less things you can change which feels limiting sometimes. But as time went by I noticed that I often repeated the same adjustments to get the look that I enjoy from the M10M files.

I try make sure we have some absolute whites in the image, so the white is not light grey, but actually white but without clipping of course. And then I try make sure we have some absolute blacks in the image. Where the darkest parts of the image are dark enough to almost be black and not dark grey. This results in a punchy high contrast image. I then adjust the overall look with the contrast slider, often reducing the contrast a bit again, to gain back some of the ‘grays’. The results are then as shown on the photos accompanying this article.

About Jip's last story

Thank you for making your way through Jip’s final story. He wrote it a few days before his unexpected passing on Feb 7, 2025.

For those who don’t know, Jip died from an acute aortic dissection. It’s so unfair this had to happen to him. Thankfully I was there when it happened in our home. He was not alone in the end.

At the start of our relationship, I designed and developed this website for Jip. I enjoyed that he found great success with it, and that it enabled him to share his creativity, passion and knowledge with the photography communities, especially the Leica community. When Jip’s brother found the Monochrome story draft, I knew I had to publish it. Jip hadn’t selected the photos yet, but I had a pretty good idea which moments and photos he probably would have picked. We spend 14 years together, and I know him very well. I organized the photos more or less in a chronological order.

Jip thought me how to photograph with the timeless Leica M system. I recently picked up Jip’s Leica M10 Monochrom, and have been obsessed with the quality and emotion the camera captures moments in gorgeous black and white for eternity. Jip’s tips on how to edit the files, helped me already, and I hope you find great value in them too. Below you will find Jip’s last photos that he made on a snowy walk in the Swiss mountains. That day he wanted a classic look with the first Leica lens he bought. He had such a great sense of style! I miss him.

His husband,

Lorenz Vercauteren-Seghers