Leica launches first 40MP camera M10R

By Zsarlene B. Chua, Senior Reporter

GERMAN premium camera manufacturer Leica has launched an update for its M series with the Leica M10R, its highest resolution model yet packing 40 megapixels, one of new products the company is introducing as they hope to recover steam at the end of their fiscal year due to the pandemic.

“We all have to work with some sort of prediction, with some sort of forecast. Unfortunately, this current situation does not allow us [that],” Sunil Kaur, managing director at Leica Asia Pacific, said during a digital conference on July 17 via Zoom.

Last year, he said, was the “second-best year” Leica had in its entire history though he declined to divulge specific numbers.

Mr. Kaur said they decided to “delete three months” into their predictions for the year: April, May and June, the three months hardest hit by the pandemic where “almost every country in the world suffered.”

The pandemic notwithstanding, he said the company continues to be “very aggressive in investing into the brand and we have many new products coming down in the pipeline.

“So in the last of those three months, we hope to be able to recover towards the fourth quarter of our financial year (January to March),” Mr. Kaur explained.

A testament to its continued bullishness is the Leica M10R, a full-frame rangefinder with its 40MP color sensor and featuring the quiet shutter introduced in the M10-P. The hefty 40MP sensor is said to “significantly reduce image noise as well as a wider dynamic range,” according to the product’s description on its website.

The M10R body (priced at P486,000) is virtually identical to the M10-P launched in 2018 and shares most of its key specs including 3-inch touchscreen rear displays, 100 to 50,000 ISO ranges, Maestro II image processors, and the company’s split-screen manual focus system. It also weighs 660g including the battery. Only, while M10-P has a 24MP sensor, the M10R has 40.

The other Leica camera with this much megapixels is the M10 Monochrom that only shoots in black and white.

Leica also promises excellent low-light performance while maximum exposure time has been increased to 16 minutes (using ISO 100).

The M10R body can also use all of the 29 different M lenses, even the earliest ones, though the “open aperture will show [the older lenses’] character a bit more than film or M9,” Stefan Daniel, Leica’s product division’s global director, said during the same conference.

“But for superb image quality, you are better served with a later design,” he added.

The Leica M10R will be available in July.

For more information, visit the Leica website at .