Introduction

On June 21st 2011 Leica announce the M9-P, and this was the first of the modern 'P' variants, which have also been released for the M (240), the M10 and now the M11.
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The original MP was black paint with a Leicavit winding system released in the late 1950's, it was based on the M3 from 1954.
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Traditionally the 'P' variant has a Sapphire crystal rear LCD (better for scratch resistance and clarity). The top plate is engraved with the Leica lettering and the Red Dot is replaced with a more discrete screw. As the changes are fundamentally cosmetic rather than functional I haven't usually written about them.
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This time however there is also an improved 256Gb Internal memory (as opposed to the 64Gb on the M11).
More importantly than all of this is the introduction of Leica Content Credentials, which is a method of insuring authenticity of images. The Leica/Adobe system adheres to the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) open-source standard (there are other new standards coming up).
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In addition to all of this the M11-P marks the introduction of firmware 2.01 for the M11 series of cameras.
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Traditionally, and perhaps even more this time around (the M10-R having been such a success) lots of Leica users wait for the 'P' model before upgrading from the previous iteration. On that basis I will first look back briefly at the changes from the M10 camera before looking at the new features in more detail.
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Talking to Dad
Leica M11-P with 50 APO Summicron M

Hardware Changes from M10-R

Superficially the M11P looks like an M10P with much higher resolution, but actually it's quite a revolution in terms of image quality, connectivity and functionality. To sum up

The new base improves weather sealing and strength
New black paint option is lighter and very resilient with grippy finish
Aluminium top plate makes it the weight of an M6.)
Button layout is now the same as the SL2 and Q2
3 New programmable function buttons (Fn, top-plate, thumbwheel)
New battery with 700 shot CIPA standard (this has proved modest)
64/256Gb of very fast internal memory
Brand new and faster Maestro III processor
New 60mp BSI CMOS sensor with excellent dynamic range
Full time off-sensor metering (much more accurate, no extra shutter lag)
Electronic Shutter (up to 1/16,000 sec) allows for shooting wide open without an ND filter.
USB-C Charging,

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The Silver Chrome M11-P
iPhone 14 Pro

PTP and Apple MFI connectivity using USB-C port
Direct connection from camera to Lightroom via USB-C cable
Improved FOTOS app allowing filtering selections
Tethering via FOTOS app
Geotagging via FOTOS app
New well constructed EVF with bigger and brighter image (like Q2)
LCD Display with double the pixel count of the M10
Image stabilised monitor on the EVF and LCD (not the sensor!)
Combined Quick Menu and status screen
Menus changed to be even more compatible with Q2 and SL2
Improved menu system for uncoded M lenses
Digital Zoom mode with framelines for 1.3 and 1.8 crops
Variable DNG size (18.4mp, 36.5mp and 60.3mp)

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Sunshine
Leica M11-P with 50 APO Summicron M

Specific M11P advantages over the M11 are:
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Sapphire Crystal LCD cover (rather than toughened glass)
256Gb of very fast internal memory (as opposed to 64Gb)
Unobtrusive design without red dot Leica Logo on the top-plate
Leica Content Credentials
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If you would like to read more detail about these changes, then you can look at my article about the M11 here.
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Goat Island
Leica M11-P with 75 APO Summicron M

Leica Content Credentials

The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is an association founded on November 2019 by Adobe, the New York Times, Twitter and others with the intention of curbing disinformation. The idea is to promote an industry standard for provenance metadata for files defined by the C2PA.
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The C2Pa is the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, co-founded by Adobe with arm, the BBC, Intel and Microsoft and many more, as you can see that big guns are involved in this!
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Whilst the C2PA is tasked with the formulation of an open, royalty-free technical standard for metadata, the CAI sees it's task in the dissemination and promotion of the standard.

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Sweet Water Beach
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

The idea is to add an additional set of metadata to a file containing information about it's provenance, and edits which may have been made using compliant software. This could apply to a photo, a video or a text file.

The base information (added to the metadata by the M11P) shows:
The Photographer
The Device
The location and time of the recording
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If you edit the file in Lightroom CC or Photoshop 24 (or another compliant program) then the provenance of any edits are also recorded. NB this is not yet installed either in Lightroom Mobile, or Lightroom Classic, but it will be in the future.
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The New Egg
Leica M11-P with 75 APO Summicron M

Leica are the first camera company to implement this in a camera; sadly the first step is a hardware chip, so it won't be possible to make this backwardly compatible for previous Leica cameras.
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You can check the Content Credentials of any file using the free CAI website:
( https://contentcredentials.org/verify )
just drop any file onto the web page and the content credential information will be shown. or if you see the CR pin on an image in the internet then you can click on that for details
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Fishing Boat
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

If the image is edited in any non-compliant software (such as Lightroom Classic at the time of writing) the Content Credentials are destroyed.

Some generative AI programs (currently by Microsoft and Adobe) will also add Content Credential information, for example this Penguin picture:
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The CAI Website ( https://contentcredentials.org ) has some excellent pages showing how this actually works. I thoroughly recommend you go and have a look at it
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For Example

The Following image was created in the Leica M11-P and then opened in Photoshop, it was then exported as a jpg file, which was in turn opened in Photoshop, modified and exported.
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If the image is edited in any non-compliant software (such as Topaz AI at the moment) the Content Credentials are destroyed.
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Here you can see the results if this image is edited in Topaz AI and then re-verified. (I imagine that Topaz AI will comply at a later date - this is just an example.
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How to use it in Photoshop

Currently you have to be quite determined to get it all working properly
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First of all, in preferences you need to enable Content Credentials. It then becomes available in the Window Menu
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Then you need to export the image and you need to enable the content credentials and choose whether to attach it to the file or publish to Content Credentials Cloud.
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Firmware v 2.01 Improvements

Bluetooth Shutter & Settings - with the new FOTOS Update you will be capable to connect the camera via Bluetooth only to get a much faster initiated Remote Control function.
Fotos Shutter Release via bluetooth
Edit File Name - Now the user can change three letters of the file name
Touch Mode ON/OFF - Some users wished for a option to disable the touch mode because it was accidently used with the nose.
Zoom/Focus point on display re-centred after off/on of display
Copy INT → SD + PlayMode - After copying, you can see the images directly in Play mode.
Tethering with C1 and Lr - a Plug In for this function in Lr can be downloaded here. C1 already supports this function.
Message empty battery - If the capacity drops under 3%
Extended Dynamic Range - for jpg files
Self-timer option is not a drive mode anymore
Shutter closed when lens is detached
Camera is no longer attaching outdated geotags to images
Freeze Improvements
Other Small Bug Fixes
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Glykanera
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

Square Eggs for Sale
Leica M11-P with 75 APO Summicron M

Changes in Fotos

Fotos has been developing steadily and quietly over the past year or so into a really useful app for controlling the camera and interacting with social media.
The new firmware update adds faster Bluetooth connectivity, including the option to release the shutter via bluetooth (you don't see the image on the device screen though, which would be nice).
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Sweet Water Beach
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

Edit File Name

This is great - you can now have a three letter prefix to the file name, any combination of three letters is possible and they can be saved back to the individual user profiles. I currently have my M11-P set up with DAY NIT MAN for 3 different user presets, (Day, Night, Manual). There are lots of possibilities - this isn't going to float everybody's boat, but certainly it's useful for me.
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Just Sayin'
Leica M11-P with 50 APO Summicron M

Zoom / Spot Metering position zeroed after display off/on

This is something which has irritated lots of us over the years. if you inadvertently moved the zoom/spot pointer to the corner of the display then it would remain there until you moved it back to the centre. Now it will automatically recenter itself after the display goes off and on again (same with the EVF). Hooray!
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Sweet Water Beach
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

Tethering with Lightroom and Capture One

I don't shoot tethered, but this is obviously a useful addition. The Lightroom plugin can be downloaded from the Leica Website here:
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snapshot
Leica M11-P with 50 APO Summicron M

Self Timer Moved from Drive Mode

The Self Timer has been moved from the drive mode menu to it's own menu position - which certainly seems sensible to me. .
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Shutter Closed when Lens removed

When the lens is removed the shutter closes. This obviously helps reduce the likelihood of getting dust on the sensor. It's an extremely useful new function.
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Dancing Sea Squills
Leica M11-P with 75 APO Summicron M

Greatly Improved Geotagging

The Geotagging function when connected to Fotos via Bluetooth has been greatly improved. This is something I got quite involved with during the development, and whereas once it was a bit hit and miss it now seems to be really good, and of course it's better to have it in conjunction with your phone than having a chip in the camera using power.
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Gleaming
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

Improved Dynamic Range

This new option uses local tone mapping to adjust highlights and shadows to enhance the contrast of the image as a whole, and to preserve details in the shadows and highlights.
Leica feel this makes the image correspond more closely to the way the human eye would view the scene.
It can only be used with JPG files and can be set to Off, Medium and High in the JPG settings.
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The dance of the Sea Squills
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

Roumeli
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

Conclusion

In the tradition of the -P series this camera offers a cosmetic update to the original camera with the Leica lettering on the top-plate, and the removal of the Red Dot together with a tougher sapphire glass rear display.
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But in this case it offers a lot more, in particular the hardware chip to allow Content Credentials to be added to images. This is an important first step towards transparency and traceability. Although still in the beta phase, it is gaining momentum and many important organisations are embracing it. It promises to be a really significant help in fighting against disinformation and theft of images, whether literal or developed in AI,
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The Captain
Leica M11-P with 35 APO Summicron M

In addition the M11-P has 4 times as much internal storage space as the M11. When the M11 arrived I was inclined to think that they would have been better to have two SD card slots (like most other cameras). Apparently there wasn't room, so they settled for the internal memory. Now I much prefer the internal memory - it would be nice if you could use Mass Storage to connect, but it works well anyway. With the extra memory in the M11-P there is enough to hold over 3,000 large RAW files, which is sufficient for the biggest wedding, or a whole holiday (for me anyway!).
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Leica have used the release of the M11-P to significantly improve the firmware from the M11, both in terms of adding new features and sorting out bugs. It's great that this is also available for the previous M11 cameras.

The M11 is a brilliant camera, well worth the upgrade from the M10-R in so many respects, and the M11-P is another significant upgrade. Leica is going from strength to strength.
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Sfakian Dawn
Leica M11-P with 50 APO Summicron M

Acknowledgements

As Always, especial thanks to Emma Slack who puts up with me writing this stuff and anguishing about it afterwards.

Thanks to the M production team at Leica, in particular to Christoph Mueller who is always great to talk to and who has helped me to avoid too many mistakes in this article!

Congratulations and thanks to Nico Koehler who has cheerfully and forcefully managed to change Leica Fotos from a rather simplistic and buggy program to something which really enhances the user experience for all of us.

Thanks also to Stefan Daniel and Jesko von Oeynhausen at Leica, who, despite being so busy always find time for a useful discussion

Thanks to Evris Papanikoas at Rock and Roll straps for the lovely blue strap to match the silver M11-P and the Small Havana bag which has been my constant companion for most of the last year.
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Finally thanks to the Leica Messenger friends, Amitava Chatterjee, Bill Rosauer, Hari Subramanyam, Marke Gilbert, Milan Swolfs and Paulo Silveira. You make all of this so much more fun!

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Reach for the sky
Leica M11-P with 50 APO Summicron M