Leica Q3 Monochrom at a glance:

• $7790/£5800
• 60.3MP monochrome sensor
• ISO 100-200,000
• Up to 15fps
• C8K 30p, C4K 60p, FHD 120p
• MOV, MP4 and ProRes
• 5.76m-dot, 0.79x electronic viewfinder

Despite its name, the Leica Q3 Monochrom is not the third Leica Q compact camera the company has introduced that shoots only in black and white. For clarity, it is in fact the black and white version of the Leica Q3, but it’s only the second Q model to dispense entirely with colour. While the idea of a 2025 camera that only shoots black and white will be surprising to a lot of people for many years to come, Leica has some form with this concept. It has been practicing making Monochrom-series cameras for fourteen years, and with each new model the company gets better at it. 

In its relatively small form, this latest Q brings almost all that we get in the firmware-updated colour version of the Leica Q3, including some impressive resolution and the chance to shoot smaller files when appropriate. Using a sensor with a 60.36MP pixel count instead of the 61MP sensor used in the regular Q3, this Monochrom variant does away with the little colour filters that impede the passage of light to the photodiodes, so we should get cleaner – if less colourful – images in low light as a result. 

Monochome-only cameras are still a novelty (though Ricoh is doing its best to make them more common) and the market is somewhat smaller for them than it is for colour models – which goes only a short distance towards explaining the extraordinary $7790/£5800 price of this camera. I wouldn’t usually mention price until the end of a review when we’ve already examined what it can do, but in the case of the Leica Q3 Monochrom readers might feel it rather has to justify its cost right from the beginning. 

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Features

The Leica Q3 Monochrom is a compact camera sporting a 60.36MP full-frame sensor and a non-interchangeable 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens that uses 11 elements in 9 groups and which includes three aspherical elements. Of course, the headlines are about what it doesn’t have – which are the coloured filters that would usually cover each of those 60 million pixels. This black and white-only camera has no use for them. 

While having no filters takes away our ability to record colour pictures, it also gives us the ability to better resolve detail and tonal transitions, as each pixel can speak with its own voice rather than having to blend its opinion with a committee of others to deliver any decision. The additional light that will reach each pixel should also, with all other things being equal, offer us images with improved noise performance at all times, but especially in dim conditions when we need to push our ISO ratings upwards. Our ISO range is a pretty impressive 100-200,000. 

Regular cameras can shoot in black and white with red, yellow, orange and green filter effects by making use of the colour information they naturally collect. This Q3 Monochrom cannot do that, but we can still use coloured filters over the lens to achieve the same effects, as we would with black and white film. 

A lack of phase detection autofocus pixels is a further feature of this monochromatic imaging sensor. The colour version of the Q3 uses PDAF, but we don’t get it in the Monochrom model. Exactly why this is the case isn’t clear, but it could be that the basis of the sensor is shared with the Leica M Monochrom – which, as a manual focus camera, has no need for focusing points at all. Or it could be that with the Maestro IV processor, Leica believes it has enough read-out and processing speed to really make the most of the DFD contrast detection focusing system it has borrowed from Panasonic. 

Alternatively, it could be that Leica wanted to keep the image quality from this model as pure and clean as possible. Having no pixels in the array distracted from the gathering of image-forming light avoids the visual interference that can often come about as a result of the interpolation required to hide their presence. Or perhaps Leica just hasn’t worked out how to do it yet. It may or may not matter. 

As much as it’s great to have 60MP images, users will soon find that there are occasions on which all that resolution is more than is really needed – storage begins to fill and software begins to slow down. Usefully then, we can opt not to shoot at the full resolution all the time. What Leica calls Triple Resolution Technology allows us to downscale to 36MP or 18MP in the shooting menu. Crucially, these aren’t just crops of the full resolution sensor that will alter the effective focal length of the lens, but images which are reduced via internal processing and use the full area of the sensor. It’s a very useful feature to have, and not as simple as it sounds to incorporate into a camera. 

For those occasions when a 28mm focal length is just a bit too wide, the Q3 Monochrom offers a digital zoom feature that delivers the effects of 35mm, 50mm, 75mm and 90mm lenses by cropping into the full resolution image. From 28mm with the full 60MP of the sensor we can get 35mm with 38MP, 50mm with 19MP, 75mm with 8.4MP and 90mm with a still-useful-for-some-things 5.8MP. The crop applies to the JPEG images, so if you shoot RAW you’ll preview the crop in Camera Raw but can undo it afterwards. The camera stores its raw files in the DNG format, so Adobe knows exactly what to do with them. 

This is the first Leica Q to offer Content Credentials in-camera, which helps users ensure their images are traceable online and allows potential buyers to know the extent to which they have been altered or added to. This isn’t something we all need especially, but it makes the camera more useful for documentary/press photographers as the system helps picture buyers determine the content of the image is authentic. 

The camera is powered by a 2200mAh battery that Leica tells us is good for 302 shots and which can be recharged while still inside the body using the USB-C that also allows us to shoot while charging. The HDMI port, which allows video recording to an external device, is compatible with HDMI Micro cables, and we have WLAN, Bluetooth 5.0LE and GPS for wirelessly connecting to the world.

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Black and white movies

Remarkably, the Leica Q3 Monochrom also offers us the chance to shoot 10 bit C8K video directly to a 300Mbps SD memory card or out through the HDMI port at frame rates of up to 29.97p. We have quite a collection of video options, including C4K at 59.94 fps, H.264 and H.265 choices, HLG and Log shooting, and a 120fps frame rate for FHD in 4:2:2 ‘colour’. We can even shoot in Adobe ProRes in the FHD codecs. Whether Q3 Monochrom users will take advantage of these generous options remains to be seen, but with the digital zoom settings this fixed lens compact camera can shoot 8K video with a 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm or 90mm focal length effects. It really does offer a pretty interesting proposition for those interested in making black and white movies.

Leica Q3 – Key features

The Q3 Monochrom uses the same body as the colour version, just with a black and white sensor.

• Built-in lens: The camera comes with a 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens that is attached permanently to the body. The hood screws off to make way for E49-sized filters
• Macro shooting: Turning a ring on the lens activates macro focusing optical configuration that allows us to focus at just 17cm. When the ring turns an alternative focusing scale slides into place so we can also focus manually if we want to
• Cable release: This might be a modern camera that can be controlled via the Leica Fotos app for iPhones, but we also have a screw-thread in the shutter button that takes a traditional cable release 
• Power: Leica’s BP-SCL6 Li-ion battery slots directly into the base and is specified 302 shots per charge. It charges via USB-C or the optional HGF-DC1 Wireless Charging Handgrip
• Storage: A single UHS-II SD card slot is found in the base of the camera, behind a hinged door that’s right beside the tripod socket
• Connectors: There’s a micro-HDMI port for video output, along with USB-C for power delivery, battery charging, and direction connection to an iPhone / iPad

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Viewfinder and screen

The Q3 Monochrom comes with the upgraded electronic viewfinder that we saw on the colour Q3, and it features a 5.7-million-dot display for top-class resolution. It can run at 120fps as well, so it’s responsive when monitoring changes in the subject and in the camera position, and movement is rendered very smoothly. 

Our rear screen has a 1.8-million-dot resolution spread across its 3in panel, and refreshes, I assume, at 60fps. We can adjust the frame rate for the EVF to 60fps to save battery, but there are no options for the back screen.

It’s very nice, though, that the rear screen is on the same hinge system as we see in the regular Q3, so it flips up and down for low and high view-points. It doesn’t come away from the body in these positions, but as the EVF housing is only small we retain a good clear view of the screen all the time. 

A word of warning to black and white fundamentalists though – the rear screen and EVF are both capable of showing colour images. To avoid burning your artistically sensitive eyes ensure there are no stray colour JPEG or DNG files on your memory card before inserting it into the camera. In seriousness, seeing a colour image pop-up when you scroll your images in the wrong direction does break the black and white spell somewhat, and can take us out of the monochromatic bubble we need to use this camera successfully – and it can take a while to get back into it. 

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Build and handling

This may be listed as a compact camera in Leica’s inventory, and it may indeed be relatively small, but it is also a solid chunk that weighs more than its looks suggest. This is the kind of camera body that will last for ever, even if what’s going on inside mightn’t. 

Of course a solid and rugged build is what Leica is all about so that is what we should expect, but if you are somehow unfamiliar with the brand be warned. The weight won’t be prohibitive for everyone, but if you are looking for a small camera you can take everywhere the Q3 Monochrom may fit the bill but also ruin your pocket (in more ways than one). 

How you’ll feel about holding the Leica Q3 Monochrom is something you won’t know until you try it. That weighty body has no finger grip on the front of the camera to help support it, and the smooth surface offers little purchase. There is a small but very well-formed thumb rest on the rear though, the indentation of which allows us to dig-in a little for a better holding position. You will want a strap, whether neck or wrist, or to hold it with two hands. 

I rather like the layout of buttons and dials, and found what I needed very quickly and without having to resort to an instruction manual. I have some experience of Leica bodies though, going back to the M4 film cameras to the digital Leica M11. And frankly, in the hand, this Q3 Monochrom is very much like any other Leica I’ve used.

It’s very simple, with just a shutter speed dial and an aperture dial on the lens – and the shutter button with a screw-thread for a traditional cable release. There’s a thumb dial top right that we can customise, but which I used for exposure compensation, a couple of custom buttons on the rear, and a four-way rocker for menu navigation. 

The camera comes with the company’s updated menu design, which I rather like. It takes a moment to get used to, and to understand that we can whizz through the menu pages simply by pressing that same menu button. The home screen lets us switch between still and video settings and modes with a touch on the screen, and a Quick Menu display lets us get to the oft-used settings without having to go into the main menu.

It’s all very well considered, and with moderate practice, you’ll find you can get to the options you want very quickly. The simplicity of course is partly a function of the Leica Q3 Monochrom not having all the features offered by a camera like the Sony A1, but all camera GUI designers would benefit from an hour or so in its company. 

It wasn’t all plain sailing though, and for a good while the Auto Review option was greyed out in the menu and I couldn’t get it to switch on. It came on later, but I have no idea how or why. 

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Autofocus

With no phase detection AF points, the Leica Q3 Monochrom relies entirely on its contrast detection system. Modelled on Panasonic’s DFD (Depth From Defocus) system, the Q3 Monochrom’s success in focusing relies on the speed the processor can work through all the information it has gathered to help find and track the subject. Historically this system has been fast and accurate for stills when there’s lots of contrast at the subject, but somewhat less capable when it comes to tracking moving subjects. 

Fitted with the newest Maestro IV processor though, I found the AF system really very good indeed, and it is able to shift from distant subjects to close-up in an instant. I was impressed with the way the camera can detect a person, hold on to them and then have them in focus at the time of the shutter releasing. I wasn’t asking the camera to shoot continuous bursts most of the time, but it’s really useful when a green box around a subject lets you know in advance that the camera knows what you are aiming to shoot. 

I was surprised how well it performed with subjects passing close to the camera, and in situations in which many other cameras, contrast or phase detection, would have focused on the background. I’m a big fan of this DFD technology for the street photography that I love, and have found it more successful than PD systems for a long time – and the Q3 Monochrom seems to have taken it even further. I’m very happy. 

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Performance

We’re used to Leica’s being well made, producing great images and also having a decent menu system, so what has pleased me most with this Q3 Monochrom is that it operates quickly as well. There are no processing delays, no lag when changing settings, waiting for an image to appear or when starting the camera up. It just works smoothly, quickly, and its bodily functions don’t get in the way of the image-making process. I used the perspective correction feature quite a lot and found the effect just happens immediately, as does shooting a cropped image with the longer-focal-lengths emulator switched on. 

I found the exposure metering a little more difficult to judge than usual, as the camera seemed to be showing me images that were brighter than I wanted, but which proved to be more technically correct when I brought them into Photoshop. However, with this sort of camera, it’s taste rather than histograms that should lead the way. I shot both in a way that gave me what I wanted on the back screen as well as the way the camera suggested. Neither is more consistently ‘right’ than the other, but I found the dark and almost-black tones so attractive I spent a lot of time in those shady regions. 

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Image Quality

This is the important bit – when people look at your pictures, they don’t care about how hard it was to find the exposure bracketing feature in the menu, they just care about how good the picture looks. As a photographer too, the quality of the image you can expect will also determine how much inconvenience you are prepared to put up with from the camera in the process of making that picture.

When I first got to see what the Leica Q3 Monochrom had produced, the image quality was so pleasing that I think I’d have put up with the camera giving me a little electric shock every time I pressed the shutter release, or a little squirt of lemon juice each time I put my eye to the finder. 

Firstly, I really loved the general look of the images, and secondly things only got better when I started magnifying and looking at the details. The pictures are full of detail, delightful tonal transitions and a very pleasant texture. I only shot at the top ISO setting of 200,000 because this is a test and that’s expected, but was so amazed by the quality I immediately regretted not having shot at that speed before.

Images shot beyond ISO 3200 will feature grain that is clear to see when you look at 100%, but at ISO 6400 we get the sort of noise you’d expect at ISO 1600 in any other camera. The noise pattern is neat, crisp and sharp, so we don’t lose detail or suffer any of that horrible blending camera manufacturers often use to hide noise.

Consequently, we actually can shoot all the way to ISO 200,000, and Adobe’s clever Denoise tool in Camera Raw smooths it all away with minimal detail destruction. These images are so big anyway when printed even at 30x20in none of that will show. 

The noise performance gives us lots of latitude for pulling the images around, as shadows lift very nicely and we can make significant transformational decisions after the images are recorded. 

The moderate contrast this camera produces lends itself to the injected drama of the clarity slider, and it’s easy to recreate the look of Agfa APX 400 film processed in the high acutance developer Rodinal, and then printed onto the long-gone Agfa Record Rapid paper. Yes, you can shoot nice black and white pictures with a colour camera, but sadly they’ll look nothing like those the Leica Q3 Monochrom produces. 

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Our Verdict

Before this camera had even arrived I’d planned that the verdict would include some discussion on how buying a monochromatic camera in this age of colour defies logic in the same way that does buying records in the face of digital music streaming services, and driving a vintage car when even the cheapest modern model would be so much better. There’s no logic in it at all. Then I was going to say that satisfaction in photography is not always a matter of convenience, as we enjoy the experience as much as looking at the pictures, and what motivates us to buy a camera doesn’t apply when we’re buying an iron. 

But now I’ve reviewed this Leica Q3 Monochrom, have shot with it and have scrutinised the images, have looked at them again and re-gone-over the menu, I can say that the Leica Q3 Monochrom is a completely logical purchase. If black and white street/travel/documentary photography was all I ever did, there wouldn’t be another camera that was half as suitable or half as good. I really have loved using it, and have found that having a camera that deals only in black and white is less of a hair shirt and more of a liberation. The lack of choices and distraction freed my mind in a way that previous Monochrom models haven’t quite managed to do, because this one works so incredibly well.

I didn’t have to make allowances, wait in pain for a process to take place, miss a shot while tripping over the controls, or get annoyed because one of my other cameras would have reacted more quickly. 

A 28mm lens certainly wouldn’t be my first choice for street, but in action I completely forgot about that because I was enjoying myself so much. I will, however, be in a whole world of trouble if/when Leica brings out the 43mm lens version – I will find that extremely hard to resist. The price may save me though. Not that the camera is over-priced or priced too high, but because it’s beyond the reach of my spending power. This Leica Q3 Monochrom is actually worth every single penny of its really quite significant cost. 

Leica Q3 Monochrom – Full Specifications

Sensor	Full frame 62.39MP CMOS
Output size	9520 x 6336
Lens	28mm f/1.7 ASPH Summilux
Shutter speeds	60 min – 1/2000sec mechanical (60 seconds – 1/16,000sec electronic)
Flash sync	1/2000sec
Sensitivity	ISO 100 – 200,000
Exposure modes	PASM
Metering	Spot, Centre-weighted, highlight-weighted, multi-field
Exposure comp +/-3EV in 0.3EV steps	+/-3EV in 0.3EV steps
Continuous drive	Up to 15fps
Screen	3in, 1.8m-dot, tilt up and down
Viewfinder	5.76m-dot, 0.79x, 120fps
Video	C8K 29.97p, C4K 59.94p, FHD 119.88p
External Mic	Via USB
Memory card	UHS-II SD
Power 2200mAh Li-ion	2200mAh Li-ion
Battery Life	302 shots
Dimensions	130 x 80.3 x 92.6mm
Weight	746g