Black & White challenge. Leica v's Canon v's Sony / by richard bentley

Leica Typ 246

Leica

M Monochrom (Typ246)

For some time now, I have been interested in getting my hands on the Leica M Monochrom (typ 246) camera. It is a dedicated 24 megapixel black and white (monochrome) camera, which means it can only take black and white photographs. Leica's truly are the Rolls Royce of cameras. They are prestigious, beautifully crafted, artisan products made of the very best quality materials and designed and built by the world's best camera craftsmen. 

Leica's claim is that the removal of colour sensitivity in the camera improves the fidelity of the black and white image, compared with carrying out a black and white conversion using a DSLR or mirrorless camera that records colour and then converting this image to monochrome in software after taking the picture. 

Leica state on their website: "As the Leica M Monochrom has no need for a colour filter, there’s also no need to calculate luminance values by interpolation. The result: black-and-white pictures with unrivalled sharpness – even when shooting in low light."

Source: Leica's website

I was fascinated by this and wanted to see for myself...

I had no way of renting the camera where I am currently based, but I was VERY lucky to be given the chance to trial the camera from a local dealer, to whom I am very grateful. 

I then took several photographs with the Leica, and also the same image with either a Canon 5DSR (over 50 megapixels) and a Sony A7SII mirrorless camera (12 megapixels) and converted them to black and white.

The images are tagged 'A' or 'B'. 

Can you tell which images are taken with the Leica?