Last week Leica invited us to Berlin with the promise of showing a ‘revolutionary’ product from the world of digital cameras. An offer we couldn’t refuse, since we love Berlin and the weather forecast predicted a stunning 30 degrees Celsius. Although we were a bit prejudiced about the ‘revolutionary’ part of the story, we were still pretty excited and curious to visit the C|O Berlin gallery where the launch festivities were having place. And honestly we did find ourselves in the midst of a historical, thus revolutionary, product presentation in the shape of the Leica M Monochrom: the first digital only black and white camera ever made! The M Monochrom is based on the successful Leica M9 and has less filters to produce a black and white shot then all other digital – color – cameras have. This results into very fine grain and sharper images, a better control over lower ranges and exposure as well as better noise behaviour. Leica claims the M Monochrom approaches black and white film photography like no other digital camera ever did.

To prove their right they loaned an M Monochrom to Jacob Aue Sobol, who normally exclusively works on film, to shoot his latest series Arrivals and Departures, a document about the Legendary Trans Siberian Railway. And to be honest, besides Jacob himself, we are pretty enthusiastic about both his new series and the M Monochrom as well. And this had nothing to do with beautiful Berlin weather. Judge for yourself…