Sarah Alexander over at LensRentals recently conducted an eye-opening comparison between the Leica M Monochrom and the Sony A7R II.
Just to give you a bit of background information about the Monochrom, its sensor is supposed to outperform traditional colour sensors in terms of detail rendering. Specifically, the lack of a colour filter array (CFA) means the sensor is only capturing light, not colour.
For the comparison, she brought together the manager, senior technician and co-owner of the company, showed them a series of identical images taken with the two cameras and blind tested them. Her aim was to discover whether the Leica, which costs a whopping $5000 more than the Sony, is truly capable of yielding a more detailed image and performing better in low light. If the panel of experts was able to discern one from the other, it would suggest that there is something special about the Leica rendering.
I won’t give away the results (they can be found in the full article here) but it suffices to say they are quite intriguing. And before reading the answers, make sure to have a go at guessing yourself!
