leica hermès M9 special edition camera

the ‘edition hermès’ m9 camera by leica

at an event in berlin, leica camera has just released the special ‘edition hermès’ of its ‘m9-p‘ full-format digital camera, as well as the ‘m monochrom’ [sic] variant that shoots exclusively in black-and-white. 300 ‘edition hermès’ cameras are to be produced and 100 ‘edition hermès – série limitée jean-louis dumas’ models, which include bag and collector’s book. both sets include a kit lens (leica ‘summilux-M 500m f/1.4’ in the former and a ‘summicron-M 28mm’ and 90mm and ‘noctilux-M 50mm’ in the latter).

3/4 perspective

3/4 rear view

side view

view from above

the extremely limited run ‘edition hermès – série limitée jean-louis dumas’, unpacked

detail on the bag

the making of the ‘edition hermès – série limitée jean-louis dumas’ leica camera

also released at the berlin press event, the black-and-white-only ‘m monochrom’ camera eliminates the colour filters of the company’s ‘m9’ model, getting more light to each pixel, and concomitantly making the sensor more sensitive. indeed the device features ISO settings up to 10,000. in colour sensors, the results of various pixel data is demosaiced to create the image. the result of a black-and-white-only sensor is that the photographs produced are sharper. the ‘monochrom’ is also reported to create much less and finer noise even at high ISO levels.

the leica ‘m monochrom’ optimized for exclusively black-and-white shooting