Leica’s M11 line-up is now seemingly complete with the announcement of the M11-D, the luxury German brand’s costliest and most niche digital rangefinder yet. It’s niche because of what it lacks: a screen, and I’m all for it.
The screen-less model follows the Leica M11, Leica M11 Monochrom, and the content credentials-featuring M11-P, debuting an ISO dial on the camera’s rear in place of a touchscreen.
Anyone who’s used an analog Leica rangefinder, such as the Leica M-A or Leica MP, will appreciate Leica’s design choice here – the dial is where the ISO dial is usually located on Leica’s classic film cameras.
By removing the instant feedback provided by a screen for image composition and playback, and installing a traditional ISO dial instead, Leica gives us about as authentic an analog photography experience as one could hope for from a digital camera.
Instead of in-camera playback, your 61MP photos can be sent via Bluetooth to your phone and viewed in Leica’s Fotos app, and the DNG raw and JPEG files edited with your favorite mobile editor app, plus of course you can upload photos stored in the camera’s built-in 256GB memory or UHS-II SD memory card to your computer at a later point.
Battery life is an impressive 700 shots using the rangefinder mode, which can be bolstered to 1,700 shots using Leica’s adapted shooting cycle.
We still get Leica’s ‘Made in Germany’ quality, and the understated all-metal, all-black M11-D weighs just 540g – that’s 115g lighter than its peers, most likely because the touchscreen has been stripped out.
There’s also the same C2PA-approved Content Credentials hardware as found in the M11-P, designed to help guarantee the authenticity of your digital images.
Otherwise, the M11-D packs the same 61MP sensor as found in other M11 models and the Leica Q3, with an uncropped 9528 x 6328 pixel resolution, and DNG raw file sizes in the region of 100MB and JPEGs around 15MB.
Leica has set the body-only price of the M11-D at $9,395 / £8,100 (bear with us while we source Australia pricing). That’s expensive even for Leica, and especially for a standard-issue version that lacks a screen – but perhaps it isn’t logical to expect a screen-less Leica to costs less.
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Does a screen-less digital camera make sense in 2024?
If you’re used to shooting pictures with a digital camera or your phone, then not being able to check exposure on-screen and seeing your images immediately after capture will be an uncomfortable reality. However, if you want to get right back to the photography basics, it’s a revelation.
On the M11-D you have manual shutter speed and ISO dials, together with the aperture ring on the attached lens, and precious little else to navigate. There’s a steep learning curve to nail manual focus and image composition through the viewfinder, but I find it an addictive way of taking pictures, even if it’s unsuitable for most photography genres – rangefinders sure do slow you down.
I recently had the Leica MP analog rangefinder for an extended period, and it was as refreshing as it was challenging. But I reveled in the experience, and I suspect I’d get a similar feeling with its digital equivalent, the M11-D, without the exorbitant ongoing cost of buying and developing film.
I feel a little pompous to champion a $9,395 / £8,100 digital camera that doesn’t even have a screen, but for anti-tech, Leica, and analog photography fans, the M11-D makes the most sense of all. It’s just a shame that I’m never likely to be able to afford one.