Bought a new M6? The latest Leica-branded product is for you
Image: Leica For the past 100 years, Leica has made plenty of iconic 35mm film cameras. Now, it's selling film to go in them, with the announcement of Leica MonoPan 50, a black-and-white 35mm film. Leica says its first film is super panchromatic. It is sensitive to all visible light sources as well as infrared light. Photographers can use yellow, orange, red, blue, green or infrared filters to alter the appearance of images, providing quite a bit of flexibility. It offers a film resolution of 280 line pairs per millimeter, meaning it should be able to capture high levels of detail. It also features ultra-fine grain. Image: Leica For film fans, that may all sound very familiar. While MonoPan 50 is made in Germany and bears the Leica name and red dot, it's very unlikely that the company has spun up its own film factory. The film shares an awful lot in common with Adox HR-50, which is also super panchromatic, provides the same film resolution and offers the same ultra-fine grain structure. Adox HR-50 is also made in Germany. Even if it is a rebranded film, Leica could modify the emulsion to make it somewhat unique. That's a common practice, after all. For example, CineStill goes through the process of removing the remjet layer on Kodak Vision 3 500T film. MonoPan 50 could, however, simply be repacked film, which is also very common. Leica shared sample images, showing that the film provides a high-contrast, clean image with ultra-fine grain, consistent with Adox HR-50. Image: Leica Leica says MonoPan 50 won't be available until the end of August 2025, so we'll have to wait to see if there is anything unique about the film. Either way, it will come in four "distinctive packaging options" so photographers can collect their favorite design. Leica MonoPan 50 will cost $10 per roll. For comparison, Adox HR-50 currently sells for $8 per roll. Leica-provided samples:
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| Image: Leica |
For the past 100 years, Leica has made plenty of iconic 35mm film cameras. Now, it's selling film to go in them, with the announcement of Leica MonoPan 50, a black-and-white 35mm film.
Leica says its first film is super panchromatic. It is sensitive to all visible light sources as well as infrared light. Photographers can use yellow, orange, red, blue, green or infrared filters to alter the appearance of images, providing quite a bit of flexibility. It offers a film resolution of 280 line pairs per millimeter, meaning it should be able to capture high levels of detail. It also features ultra-fine grain.
 |
| Image: Leica |
For film fans, that may all sound very familiar. While MonoPan 50 is made in Germany and bears the Leica name and red dot, it's very unlikely that the company has spun up its own film factory. The film shares an awful lot in common with Adox HR-50, which is also super panchromatic, provides the same film resolution and offers the same ultra-fine grain structure. Adox HR-50 is also made in Germany.
Even if it is a rebranded film, Leica could modify the emulsion to make it somewhat unique. That's a common practice, after all. For example, CineStill goes through the process of removing the remjet layer on Kodak Vision 3 500T film. MonoPan 50 could, however, simply be repacked film, which is also very common. Leica shared sample images, showing that the film provides a high-contrast, clean image with ultra-fine grain, consistent with Adox HR-50.
 |
| Image: Leica |
Leica says MonoPan 50 won't be available until the end of August 2025, so we'll have to wait to see if there is anything unique about the film. Either way, it will come in four "distinctive packaging options" so photographers can collect their favorite design.
Leica MonoPan 50 will cost $10 per roll. For comparison, Adox HR-50 currently sells for $8 per roll.
