After seeing the leaked specifications for the upcoming Leica M11, my M10 will surely feel insecure! I was adamant that I wouldn’t upgrade this time, and instead wait for Leica to produce a hybrid viewfinder like the Fujifilm X-Pro line has. It doesn’t appear that Leica was able to produce one to their level of requirements, but they have come up with a solution that may actually work out ok.
I don’t want to steal the thunder from other websites that found the specifications, so I’ll link to the source here. The full specifications can also be found at that site or directly from here. From a travel photographer hobbyist perspective, the specifications that get me excited include the following:
- 60.3MP CMOS sensor which has the exact same pixel pitch as the Sony A7R4. We could speculate that Leica is using the excellent sensor that we’ve come to love on the Sony A7R4 in Full Frame format, the Fujifilm X-T4 in APSC format, and the Fujifilm GFX100S in Medium Format. If our speculation is accurate, this sensor will be a massive upgrade over the current 24MP sensor in the M10. The new sensor, if it’s sourced from Sony, will provide better light gathering, less noise, and much better highlight recovery and protection, along with much higher resolution.
- Electronic Shutter for taking images in bright sunlight with wide aperture Summilux lenses. The new camera will be able to reach 1/16000s which will cover almost any bright light situation.
- Elimination of the bottom plate. The new camera appears to use a latched battery cover that no longer requires the tedious removal of a bottom cover to change the battery or replace the memory card.
- USBC connector. It appears the new camera has USBC connectivity, likely for battery charging and data transfer. The M10 already had WiFi transfer so I expect that will be carried over to the M11.
- Internal 64GB memory. While I don’t do this often, I have sometimes forgotten to install a memory card and left the house; it will be nice (and hopefully precedent setting) to have internal memory as standard on a camera.
There are more features and changes to the camera including where buttons have been placed and the size of the LCD, but I’ll let you discover that on the source website. If the sensor is from Sony, this is going to be a banger of a camera! I may have to reconsider my goal to not upgrade this time… The official announcement appears to be planned for January 13th at 3:00PM CST, according to Leica’s website.