In case you hadn’t heard, Leica has a new camera that only shoots in black and white… and costs as much as a good used car. It is an unfortunate fact of life that the first thing people notice about a Leica camera is the exorbitant price tag, but when you have an $8000 monochrome camera then that is going to be the first thing that most people talk about.

To be fair, the M Monochrom is a beautiful 18-megapixel full-frame camera. Its sensor is impressive – while it only captures black and white, the fact that the sensor is able to output a pixel of data for every pixel of input ought to make for some incredibly sharp images. Other than that it seems to be a fairly regular camera: ISO goes up to 10,000; it has a 2.5” 230k-dot color (yes we know the irony) LCD and an optical rangefinder. In case you were wondering, it doesn’t shoot video. Want a good lens for it, the new Leica APO-Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 ASPH prime lens looks to be a nice piece of glass – as long as you don’t mind dropping $7,195 on one lens.

If you are a world class photographer then you can probably justify the price tag, otherwise you would probably be better off spending your money on something else.

Check out some sample shots with the Leica M Monochrom on DP Reviews. [Source]