Black-and-white only? Yep, the latest from Leica caters to the artsy crowd that loves lots of gray: the M Monochrom, unlike just about every other digital camera offered today, doesn’t capture color.

The trade-off: greater sensitivity. The company says the rangefinder’s full-frame 18-megapixel monochromatic sensor isn’t burdened with the color filter array and anti-aliasing filter other cameras have atop their sensors, and so is “capable of producing extraordinarily detailed black-and-white photographs with no Bayer interpolation. The sensor does not ‘see’ colors, Leica says, and so every pixel records true luminance values. The lack of a CFA also means that the sensor is significantly more sensitive to light, resulting in an ability to produce unusually clean image files at sensitivity settings up to ISO 10,000.”

The $7950  camera has a one-piece magnesium alloy housing, and the components and shutter assembly “are similarly constructed with a view to a lifetime of endurance. For photographers, this provides absolute reliability over decades of use,” Leica says.
More information is here.

New compacts: The X2 is “handmade at Leica’s headquarters in Germany,” the company says, and features a new APS-C sized sensor 16 megapixel resolution — one that is “unusually large for a camera in the compact segment.” With a “simple operating concept,” the X2 offers “clearly laid-out functions and intuitive handling,” Leica adds. Photographers can concentrate completely on composing their subjects and choosing the decisive instant to shoot in any situation.” It comes with a 36mm-equivalent lens.

Finally, the $699 V-Lux 40 is a 15-megapixel camera with a 20× optical zoom, touchscreen, GPS — and is likely restyled Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20, which sells for less than $300.