Leica M11 Review

Judging the M11 on the criteria that apply to a Sony misses what it is. There is no autofocus, because the rangefinder patch in the optical viewfinder is the focusing system, and there is no video, because Leica removed it. What remains is the best sensor Leica has ever fitted, with sixty megapixels of detail, a triple resolution mode that trades pixels for dynamic range, and internal storage in case the card fills.

The body is smaller and lighter than the M10, the base plate is gone, and the battery finally lasts. The lenses are the reason to own it and the reason it costs what it does. The honest assessment is that it is a slow camera that rewards a slow photographer, that the rangefinder is a skill rather than a feature, and that the price per value grade is the lowest on this list because a camera with no autofocus and no video is, on any objective measure, a great deal of money for a sensor and a viewfinder. People who buy one know all of this.