- Leica has announced a new 35mm movie
- Monopan 50 is a Finkorn Monochrom Film
- Price for £ 10 (around US $ 13 / AU $ 20) for 36 exposures
Leica decided to celebrate his hundred year’s day with a surprise. To honor 100 years ago the first production Leica camera, the brand with Red Dot drops his first ever 35mm movie. A fine -grain monochrome roll with 36 exposures, it’s a niche product to launch in 2025. But the larger bomb shell is the price: Monopan 50 costs only £ 10 (around US $ 13 / AU $ 20).
Leica is not a brand that is often associated with affordable prices. Its Camerared is known for quality craftsmanship that is priced to match. When I tested the Leica Q3 43 last year, I was both terrible of the build quality and am afraid of harming it. Because it costs $ 6,295 / £ 5,900 / AU $ 11,890. Leica is and has always been an unpublished Premium brand.
For most people, the prospect of buying or shooting with something Leica wins somewhere between bucket list and lottery wins territory. Until now, the most affordable way of shooting Leica has been D-LUX 8-a Premium compact with a Micro Four Thirds sensor that you can buy today for $ 1,595 / £ 1,450 / AU $ 2,790. Or cross all your fingers and toes in the hope of finding a used analog Leica negotiation.
Monopan 50 changes it. Granted, it’s a 35mm movie, not a camera. But it also feels like the first Leica product that is available enough for shelf photographers to use on a daily basis.
Leica for everyone
Monopan 50 lands 100 years after Leica I, the camera, which effectively invented 35 mm photography, as we know it. Unlike most Leica releases, the new movie feels like something to be used is not collected.
That’s not to say it’s not special. Monopan 50 is a Finkorn Monochrome movie made for black and white enthusiasts. With a resolution of up to 280 line pairs per Millimeter promises that details of gallery. Its ISO assessment of only 50 makes it a low sensitivity movie, inspired by the original rolls around when Leica I launched. In that sense, it is Leica as it becomes. But crucial is not scandalously expensive. In fact, on the contrary.
Even for someone like me who doesn’t regularly shoot movies, it’s a compelling suggestion. It is even more appealing to those who do, of which there is more and more.
Film photography is not just back: It’s quiet flowering. Prices for vintage cameras have risen and new analog releases arrive in larger numbers. Fujifilm was rumored to revive color stocks, Kodak upgrades its factories to meet demand, and Pentax dropped his new half -frame film camera last year. Everything is talking about a new generation that rediscovering movies.
It is in this analog resuscitation that Leica is coming. The company still produces three fully mechanical 35 mm film cameras, MA, MP and the re -published M6. Equipped with high quality optics and designed for a deliberate approach, all three expensive models are accommodating purists.
In that sense, Monopan 50 is a natural companion. Feeding these cameras with a fine-grain black and white movie produces beautiful results as they lean into the slower, almost meditative experience of recording with a 35mm distance camera.
But the wider appeal of Monopan 50 films will lie in the fact that it is democratic. With scroll prices for standard emulsions crawling past £ 10 a pop, a tenner for 36 exposures of Premium Monochrome movie feels like a bit of a stealing. That it comes from Leica only sweets the deal.
Alongside the metal-lane cameras that made its name, there is something refreshingly humble about the most achievable Leica product in the recent memory as a roll of plastic-coated acetate. But it also makes sense. As movies become more mainstream again, wake up marks up to the fact that the audience has changed.
It is no longer just enthusiasts who develop Ilford Rolls in a dark room in the home. These are Gen Z photographers looking for slower, more tactile ways of creating. And if they want to spend their cash on movies, why not give them a reason to use it on Leica?
Yes, the real costs of shooting Leica body and glass are in thousands. But Monopan 50 at least opens the door. More than a Nikk to Leica’s past, it may be a sign of another future for the brand where more people are able to handle and shoot something with the Leica name on it.
Of course, Leica would love you to pair Monopan 50 with an MA or an MP. Maybe a vintage m6. But even with a Nikon F or one of the best used movie cameras its potential for fine details and tonality is exciting.
Either way, I’m fascinated. Low-iso films are not always easy to shoot, especially in England, where cloudy conditions are standard. But Monopan 50 feels like a movie worth trying. Not only for what it can do, but for what it represents: Leica, leaning back to the media, helped define a century ago, in a way that is unexpectedly available.
So I didn’t expect to buy the Leica share this year. But now I plan it.
