Straight answer first: the browser tool on this site does not read shutter counts from any Leica body, the 2012 CCD M Monochrom included — Leica is not in the parser's support matrix, so a Monochrom DNG returns model, exposure data and dates and no actuation total. The number is in the file all the same, in an unexpected place: the standard EXIF ImageUniqueID field, written as hexadecimal. Below is how to read and convert it, how to cross-check it against the camera, and why on this particular body the sensor's history matters more than the count.
Read the count with ExifTool →Leica announced the M Monochrom in May 2012, with US deliveries from late July that year at around $7,950 body only. It is the first digital camera from any maker built solely for black and white: the 18 MP full-frame CCD is the same Kodak KAF-18500 chip as the M9's, but without a colour filter array, so every photosite records luminance only and no demosaicing takes place. The trade is absolute — the camera cannot produce a colour file at all — and what you get back is per-pixel detail and tonality a colour sensor converted to mono cannot match.
Everything around the sensor is M9: the same body, the same rangefinder, the same 2.5-inch 230k-dot screen, no live view, no video. Leica replaced it in 2015 with the CMOS-based M Monochrom (Typ 246), which is why used listings for this one are often labelled “Typ 230” or simply “CCD Monochrom” to keep the two apart.
| Specification | Leica M Monochrom (2012, CCD) |
|---|---|
| Announced / shipping | May 2012 · US deliveries from late July 2012 · about $7,950 body only |
| Sensor | 18 MP full-frame CCD, Kodak KAF-18500, no colour filter array (5212 × 3468) |
| Platform | Leica M9 body and rangefinder |
| Mount | Leica M bayonet |
| Shutter | Focal-plane, 32 s – 1/4000 s plus bulb |
| Burst | Approx. 2 fps, up to about 8 frames |
| LCD | 2.5-inch, 230k dots — no live view |
| Video | None |
| RAW format | DNG (14-bit) |
| Shutter durability | No figure published by Leica — commonly estimated at ~150,000 (est.) |
| Browser tool support | Model and EXIF yes · actuation count no |
| Successor | M Monochrom (Typ 246), 2015, CMOS |
Most cameras that expose an actuation total put it in the manufacturer's MakerNote block — Nikon at tag 0x00A7, Fujifilm at 0x1438, Sony inside the encrypted 0x9050 block. The M8/M9 generation, which the CCD M Monochrom belongs to, does something different: the counter is carried in the standard EXIF ImageUniqueID field, as a zero-padded hexadecimal string. Convert that string from base 16 to base 10 and you have the frame count the body has recorded.
Nothing about that is documented by Leica. It was worked out by M8 and M9 owners, spread through the Leica forums and the DPReview Leica Talk forum, and it has been the routine way to check a used M9-generation body ever since. It is also generation-specific: on the later M (Typ 240) the same field carries a value no one has convincingly decoded, so do not carry this recipe forward to a newer M and assume the number means the same thing.
ImageUniqueID. A Monochrom DNG opens and parses, and you get the model, the exposure data, the dates and the serial numbers the file carries, but no actuation total. That is a gap in this tool, not a fault in your camera. If you have a Monochrom, M9, M9-P or M-E DNG to spare, samples@shuttercount.app is where sample files for closing gaps like this one go.
| Leica M generation | Where the count lives | Browser tool |
|---|---|---|
| M8 · M9 · M9-P · M-E · M Monochrom (CCD) | EXIF ImageUniqueID, hexadecimal · also NumExposures in the service screen | ✗ Not decoded |
| M (Typ 240) and later | No community-confirmed reading of ImageUniqueID; treat any number from it with suspicion | ✗ Not decoded |
ExifTool is the free, open-source metadata reader. It runs locally, reads the file and changes nothing.
You get a zero-padded hexadecimal string. Converting it to decimal is one more step — on macOS or Linux:
On Windows, PowerShell does the same conversion:
The leading zeros carry no meaning; only the hexadecimal digits do. If nothing comes back at all, add -a -G1 to list every group ExifTool found, and check you are pointing it at an original camera file rather than an export.
Leica has never published a shutter durability figure for the M9-generation bodies, this one included. The ~150,000 number attached to these cameras across the web is an estimate drawn from the class norm, not a specification you can hold Leica to. The table below is a yardstick against an estimate, not a countdown against a warranty.
| Actuation count | Share of the ~150,000 estimate | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 15,000 | 0 – 10 % | Very low use — typical of a collector-kept body |
| 15,000 – 45,000 | 10 – 30 % | Low use for a camera of this age |
| 45,000 – 90,000 | 30 – 60 % | Moderate — a working body; inspect and price accordingly |
| 90,000 + | 60 %+ | Heavy — budget for a Leica shutter service, which is not cheap |
Rangefinders accumulate actuations slowly: there is no burst mode worth the name here (about 2 fps for roughly 8 frames), no video and no electronic shutter, so recorded frames and mechanical actuations track each other almost exactly. A five-figure count on a fourteen-year-old Monochrom is ordinary.
On this body the sensor's condition outranks the shutter. The M Monochrom carries the same Kodak KAF-18500 CCD as the M9, with the cover glass Leica identified as the cause of its CCD corrosion problem — visible as spots with pale halos, worse at small apertures. Leica ran a replacement programme for affected M9, M9-P, M-E and CCD M Monochrom bodies, but CCD sensor production has ended and Leica no longer replaces them; what remains is a paid upgrade programme towards current models. A corroded Monochrom is therefore not a repair job, it is a write-off of the sensor, and that risk dwarfs anything the actuation total tells you.
Practical checks on a used body, in order: ask for a full-resolution DNG shot at f/8 or smaller against a plain bright surface and look for halo spots; ask whether the sensor was ever replaced under Leica's programme and when; then read the count from that same DNG with the command above. Age-related items follow — rangefinder alignment, a battery of this vintage holding little charge, and the frameline illumination window.
Even without the count, dropping a Monochrom DNG into the tool is worth doing when you are checking a listing, because everything it reports is verifiable fact about the camera that made that file:
Everything runs in your browser; no file is uploaded. For the actuation total on this body, use the ExifTool command above.
No — not for any Leica body. There is no Leica decoder in the parser, so you get model, exposure data, dates and serial numbers, but no actuation total. The count is in the file; it is the hexadecimal ImageUniqueID value, and the commands above convert it.
Not in the ordinary menu. The M9 generation has no owner-facing actuation readout. The figure appears as NumExposures in an undocumented factory service screen, which is a cross-check rather than a first stop — it also exposes low-level settings.
No. The counter comes from the body, not the card. What formatting or the file-numbering setting can restart is the DCF file number in a name like L1001234.DNG — often mistaken for an actuation count, and not one.
Nothing published. Leica did not quote a durability figure for the M9-generation shutter, so the ~150,000 in circulation is an estimate from the class norm, not a Leica specification. A page giving you an exact rated figure for this body is quoting an estimate as though it were fact.
There is very little else it could include. The camera has no video mode, no electronic shutter and no sensor-cleaning cycle that fires the blades, so recorded frames and mechanical actuations stay in step — unlike a modern hybrid body where most frames may never have touched a mechanical shutter.
The sensor, comfortably. A shutter can be serviced; the KAF-18500 CCD can no longer be replaced by Leica, which ended CCD sensor production and now offers only a paid upgrade path. Check for corrosion spots before you look at the number.
Announcement, the monochrome-only 18 MP full-frame CCD without colour filter array, 14-bit DNG output and launch price: DPReview, “Leica announces M-Monochrom”. Shipping date, shutter-speed range, burst rate and 2.5-inch 230k-dot screen: the Imaging Resource review. Reading the count from the hexadecimal EXIF ImageUniqueID on M8/M9-generation bodies, and the NumExposures entry in the service screen: the Leica community documentation of the method, including the DPReview Leica Talk thread, Leicaphilia and La Vida Leica. The CCD corrosion cause, the models covered and the end of sensor replacement: Red Dot Forum. Which MakerNote blocks this site's parser decodes, and the absence of any Leica entry: the support matrix on the ShutterCount home page. No manufacturer shutter-durability figure exists for this body; the ~150,000 figure is identified here as an estimate for exactly that reason.