If you are settled on getting a Leica M camera, great! Here’s a Leica M comparison of ALL the digital Leica M cameras to find out which one has which feature, which is missing what, how many megapixels, etc.
Hi, my name is Sven the Leicaphile and here is the ultimate Leica M comparison table. This makes it easy to see all of the specifications and other features at a glance. If you are looking for the film cameras, this is here: Leica M film comparison.
Leica M comparison
| wdt_ID | Model | Sensor | Crop Factor | Megapixels | Fps | Max ISO | EVF | Video | Extras | Explanation | Price Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Sensor | Crop Factor | Megapixels | Fps | Max ISO | EVF | Video | Extras | Explanation | Price Check |
Upgraded sensors
If you plan on getting the Leica M8 / M9, make sure you get those with the upgraded sensors because you might end up with an expensive paper weight in your hands.
Leica M comparison CCD vs CMOS
You can use the table above to sort which Leica M has ccd vs cmos sensors. What’s the big deal you ask? The answer is rendering. For most people the rendering is subtle so they won’t see it. In practice for those who have a more trained eye, they can see the differences.
It’s just something that looks and feels more organic in the CCD sensors that make many Leica shooters prefer them. This is only under certain situations, in blind tests a lot of photographers can’t pick the CCD from CMOS, only in certain shots that the CCD look is obvious.
Is CCD better then? Not so fast. The CCD Leicas are the older ones and not only those have notoriously bad ISO handling, they are not live view and do not support the external electronic viewfinder.
Leica M video
If you want to see which Leica M shoots video, look at the video tab. There are only a few Leica M cameras that can shoot video and not that many can shoot actually usable video. VGA is a resolution of 640×480, for comparison this is about the same resolution that an iPhone 3 can shoot. Yes, iPhone 3.
The M type 240 line has some that can shoot 1080p which is the bare minimum you can shoot nowadays to match people’s higher and higher resolution screen. To be quite frank Leica Ms are not recommended for video because these are primarily photographer’s cameras.
A much better camera for video is the Leica Q2 on the high end of the price spectrum, or the Leica D-Lux7 on the low end.
Leica M High ISO / Low light performance
If you look at the table above, you will see that some Leica cameras can go in pretty high ISOs, but that is only half the picture. The real question is not how high can you Leica go but what is the actual USABLE max ISO? Because most of the older Leica digital cameras are notoriously bad at this. Here’s the usable ISOs for these cameras:
| Camera | Max ISO | Usable ISO |
|---|---|---|
| Leica M8 | 2500 | 640 |
| Leica M9 | 2500 | 800 |
| Leica M240 | 6400 | 1200-3200 |
| Leica M10 | 50,000 | 12,500 |
As you can see if you want the best Leica M that shoots low light it is the M10/M240.
The older ones grain up really fast, but the other side of the coin is this is not an issue if you have a fast lens, the high ISO would only be a last resort.
Leica M with EVF
With the switch from CCD to CMOS you have the first Leica M with EVF support: The Leica m240. There’s two main EVFs for the Leica Ms, the older EVF2 supported by the M240 family and the later Leica Visoflex. Both transform your Leica M into a mirrorless camera of some sort, and you can flip the viewfinder at 90 degrees for a more interesting way of shooting.
Monochrom versions
For three generations now the Leica Ms have had a monochrom version. All are based on a normal Leica M so here’s the list of their equivalents:
| Monochrom name | Normal version |
|---|---|
| Leica M Monochrom | Leica M9 |
| M monochrom (Typ 246) | Leica M240 |
| Leica M10 Monochrom | Leica M10 |
Leica M megapixels
All Leica Ms have good enough resolution to print big. The earliest digital rangefinder from Leica, the M8 has 10 megapixels so that is more than enough in terms of megapixels and it only goes up from there. The latest ones have megapixels upwards of 40 megapixels, the real advantage here is the cropping power.
You could potentially only have a 28mm attached and could crop to about an effective 50mm and still have plenty of megapixels left to print.
Looking for something else?
Also check out the article about Leica alternatives, or if you want the Leica image quality without having to go trough the learning curve of shooting with a manual focus rangefinder, check out the Leica compacts.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this Leica M comparison with all of the Leica M models compared. As you can see with time the Leica Ms get better and better and they have less quirks. Those with the CCD sensors have a special rendering under the right conditions but they have poor ISO performance and you must make sure to get the upgraded sensor in order not to be burned. The most recommend one is the Leica M10R or the original M10. If you are on a budget then the M240 or Leica M-E (based on the M9).