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Product photos: Richard Butler
The Leica Q3 Monochrom is a black-and-white only version of the company's 61MP full-frame fixed 28mm lens camera.
Key specifications
61MP BSI CMOS sensor with no color filter
Reduced res JPEGs or Raws at 36MP or 18MP
28mm F1. 7 lens
5. 76M dot OLED EVF with 0. 79x magnification
3" tilt touchscreen LCD with 1. 84 million dots
8K video capture in UHD or DCI ratios up to 30p (H. 265)
Apple ProRes 422HQ support for 1080p video capture up to 60p
AI-assisted perspective control mode
IP52-rated dust and water resistant
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
The Leica Q3 Monochrom will be available from today at a recommended price of $7790.
Index:
What is it
How it compares
Body and handling
Initial assessment
Sample gallery
Specifications
Press release
Buy now:
Buy at AdoramaBuy at B&H PhotoWhat is it?
The Q3 Monochrom is an updated version of the Q2 Monochrom based, as the name implies, on the newer Q3 camera. This means it has the same lens as the Q2 but with the excellent 61MP BSI CMOS sensor and Maestro IV processor from the newer camera, bringing features such as perspective correction.
However, unlike the color Q3, it does not gain phase-detection AF, instead relying on contrast detection (presumably the version of Panasonic's Depth-from-Defocus) system that Leica used for some years.
New interface
The Q3 Mono also gains the updated interface from the SL3 cameras, which separates stills and video features into red and yellow-accented displays, switched between by swiping left and right on the settings display screen.
Leica says that, in addition to the reworked display logic, every single icon on the camera has been redesigned. The updated interface will be available for Leica Q3 and Leica Q3 43 users via a free firmware update, shortly.
Content credentials
The Q3 Monochrom also joins the list of Leica cameras that can embed CAI Content Credentials in its images. Leica's implementation relies on specific hardware, so this feature will not be extended to existing Q3 and Q3 43 owners.
Why B&W?
From a technical perspective, there are a couple of benefits to using a camera with no color filter array, assuming you're not interested in capturing color. The first is that, because you're not demosaicing to interpolate the missing colors at each pixel location, you aren't softening your output.
A monochrome camera makes you think in terms of light and shade, rather than color. If anything, this shot would have be overwhelming and confused in color, and probably more objectionably noisy.
The absence of a filter sapping around a stop of light also means the Q3 Mono should prove a stop less noisy and have a stop's improved tonal quality at every ISO (with the caveat that the standard Q3's base ISO is a stop lower, so in good light, it'll catch up, if you can give it enough light). On top of this, many people find noise less distracting if it's rendered as the wrong brightness, rather than the wrong color, so the perceived advantage is likely to be even more than a stop, in low light.
There's no safety net on a mono camera
However, along with these benefits comes an increased exposure challenge. The ability to recover the highlights comes primarily from the fact that a camera with a CFA's color channels don't all clip at the same point, so there's often enough further information about brightness being captured above what appears to be the clipping point, in the Raws. This lets you reconstruct and approximate the detail in the highlights, well beyond the point that you can capture accurate color. There's no such safety net on a mono camera: if an area is clipped, then there's no way for processing software to tell what's 'just' clipped from what's spectacularly clipped: it's just unrecoverably white.
The temptation is to err on the side of underexposure and cut into that one-stop advantage.
How it compares:
When Leica launched the original Q2 Monochrom back in 2019, there was no direct competition, as Leica was the only major brand making black and white cameras. Since then, Ricoh has joined the fray with its Pentax K-3 III Monochrome and the forthcoming GR IV Monochrome. The GR IV makes an interesting comparison to the Leica. It uses a smaller sensor and has a slower lens, so it's not going to compete for peak image quality, but it's a lot smaller and, we have to assume, a lot less expensive. We've included the details we know so far and those we can infer from the specs of the color GR IV.
Leica Q3 Mono
Leica Q2 Mono
Ricoh GR IV Mono
MSRP:
$7790
$5995
Sensor size
Full frame
(36 x 24mm)
Full frame
(36 x 24mm)
APS-C
(23. 3 ax 15. 5mm)
Resolution
61MP
47MP
26MP
Lens
28mm F1. 7
28mm F1. 7
28mm equiv F2. 8
Max sync speed
1/2000 sec
1/2000 sec
1/4000 sec
Max burst rate
4fps 12-bit (with AF)
15fps 12-bit (with AF/AE fixed)
5fps (with AF)
10fs (with AF/AE fixed)
Viewfinder
5. 76M dot
(1600 x 1200px)
0. 76x mag
3. 69M dot
(1280 x 960px)
–
Rear LCD
1. 84M dots tilt up/down
1. 04M dots fixed
1. 04M dots fixed
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 5
(b/g/n/ac)
Wi-Fi 4
(b/g/n)
Wi-Fi 6E
(b/g/n/ac/ax)
Internal storage
–
–
53Gb
UHS-II SD
UHS-II SD
UHS-I SD
Battery life
350 shots
350 shots
Dimensions
130 x 80 x 93mm
130 x 80 x 92mm
110 x 61 x 34mm
In many respects, the Leica Q3 remains peerless; it's a substantial upgrade over the Q2, primarily by dint of a much better sensor. We can't know exactly how much better the image quality of the Q3 Monochrome will be than that of the as-yet-unreleased Ricoh GR IV Monochrome but given the fact that the Ricoh is being built around a sensor that uses the same pixels on a chip with 42% of the light-capturing area, we can make an estimate with pretty high precision. We can also get a very good idea of the impact of the slower maximum aperture.
As is so often the case with Leica products, if you want what the Q3 Mono offers, then this is pretty much the only option available.
Body and handling
The camera's primary exposure settings are controlled via a dedicated aperture ring around the front of the lens and a shutter speed dial on the top plate. There's also a command dial on the camera's rear right shoulder that lets you adjust exposure compensation or ISO, or fine-tune the shutter speed.
The body is an exact match for the Q3, with the same solid-feeling build and IP52 environmental sealing rating. The only difference is the word Monochrom embossed in the top plate and the complete absence of color on the body.
As with the Q3, the camera is environmentally sealed to the point of earning an IP52 rating. This isn't especially strenuous but means that there should be limited dust ingress, to a degree that shouldn't interfere with operation and that it can withstand water droplets falling on the camera at up to 15 degree angles from vertical. This isn't much, but the fact that it's been designed and built to repeatably withstand such a test is more of a commitment than you get from most cameras.
The Q3 Monochrom has a 5. 76M dot viewfinder and a tilt up/down rear touchscreen. Just next to the viewfinder is a diopter adjuster, which pops out when you press it. Here it's shown in its extended position.
The handling is fairly straightforward with a dedicated aperture ring and shutter speed dial, each of which has an auto position. There's also a customizable command dial on the top rear corner, which has a function button at its center. This gives direct access to the camera's principle exposure parameters, fairly easily.
There's a thumb rest on the camera's focus ring that has a tiny button on its edge, which engages and disengages manual focus mode. The lens is focus-by-wire but has a linear response and a distance scale, so it gives a very good impression of a physically connected focus ring. Set behind this is a ring that shunts the lens between its standard focus range (0. 3m – Infinity) and the camera's Macro range (0. 17m – 0. 3m).
A ring next to the camera's body lets you shift the lens into its Macro range.
Press the menu button and you get a settings display that you can touch to change any of the camera's core settings. Swipe left and the display switches to a yellow-accented version that shows the video settings. Hit Menu again and you enter the short, well-organized camera menu. It's not dramatically different to the version in the existing Q3 and Q3 43 but it's that bit cleaner and neater. We'd definitely advise users of those cameras to update their firmware when this version of the UI becomes available.
Battery
The base of the battery forms the bottom of the camera, rather than sitting behind a door. The sliver lever to its left releases the first of two catches to eject the battery.
The camera's battery embeds into its baseplate and is released with a large silver lever. Once you've pushed the lever, you have to then push the battery in a little to release a second catch within the body.
The BP-SCL6 battery is a relatively large 16Wh unit from which the camera delivers a battery life of 350 shots per charge. These numbers always significantly understate the amount of shots most people will actually get, and a rating of 350 shots per charge is pretty solid for a day's committed shooting. It can be recharged over the USB slot on the camera's slide.
Initial assessment
A compact camera with a prime lens is something of a niche proposition. Add to that Leica's premium pricing, and that niche becomes smaller still. Take the color filter away, and its appeal narrows to the point that you wonder whether the company already knows the photographers and collectors who'll buy one by name.
I like shooting with prime lens cameras, but tend more towards normal lenses than wide angles. So the prospect of shooting a wide-angle camera with added restrictions was daunting, to say the least. In practice, I found the challenge fascinating.
Autumn has well and truly molded Seattle to its fleeting fashion, leaves red and golden, glistening in low, stark sunshine between the rain and wind storms that will sweep us on into winter, all too soon. In those breaks in the cloud, some of the color is spectacular, and of no interest whatsoever to a monochrome camera.
At I first I wandered through this scene, constantly frustrated that the Q3 Mono couldn't see any of the things I saw to capture. But, just as the restriction of a single focal length makes you see the world through its specific lens, so the inability to capture color forced me to focus instead on light and shade.
The downside of the camera embedding Content Credentials is you might inadvertently credit your photos to the previous user of the camera.
Of course, it didn't suddenly make me an expert black and white photographer in the handful of days during which I had the camera and the sky wasn't just overcast, but it was enough to make me recognize what the Q3 Monochrom is for.
There are a couple of technical benefits to the lack of a color filter (sharper images and better quality when you're light-limited), but for me, the strongest case for the Q3 Mono is the creative restriction. And, just as I argued a camera with a fixed prime is not the same thing as an ILC with a prime lens on it, I'll argue vehemently that a mono camera isn't the same as switching your existing camera to black and white mode, even if you put the technical benefits to one side. There's a difference between seeing a colorful autumnal scene and knowing in the back of your mind that you could just shoot it in color, and knowing that you have to move on, because your camera is literally incapable of capturing it.
As ever, Leica's pricing seems to defy rational analysis (that's arguably partly by intent), so it's senseless to ask whether the Q3 Mono is 'worth it. ' No, of course it's not. Unless, for you, it is. For the rest of us, it's quite exciting to know that the smaller, much more affordable Ricoh GR IV Monochrome is on its way. It won't come close to the Leica in terms of image quality or, perhaps, desirability, but it'll let more of us explore the fascinating restrictions of black and white digital.
Buy now:
Buy at AdoramaBuy at B&H PhotoSample gallery
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2025-11-22 17:00
