As September comes to a close (even though it's not quite there yet) I'm drawing a line under this: whatever else happens I've decided I'm
not going to be buying a dedicated monochrome-only camera. Not because I think such cameras are bad cameras, nor because I think that kind of a camera is a bad idea - just because I don't think they'll work for
me (YMMV). For anyone interested (🤭) I'll give some reasons down the end of what's likely to be an overly-long post.
Despite deciding 'not', I have found this to have been a very valuable exercise (you can see the photos I took during my exercise in the Flickr album linked in post #43 above, which I'll stop updating).
The value I found came in many parts:
- It got me taking photos regularly and with intent, after a fairly long hiatus
- It got me thinking more about the photos I did take
- It showed me that I can both "look for" and "find" photos I think will work well in B&W, even while carrying a colour-capable camera
- Specifically, it showed me I don't need to carry a mono-only camera to 'see' B&W (though I understand how that might help)
- It improved my B&W conversion skills and workflow (you might not like the results, but I do like some of them)
- It got me adding things to the exercise: using cameras I'd not used in a while plus re-learning things about my 50mm Leica-mount lenses
Now: that link in post #43 (above) is quite a grab-bag: photos I thought
would work well in black and white, (fewer) photos I thought would
not work (but thought I'd try, to see the result), photos which were deliberate 'torture-tests' of B&W conversion etc. The ones taken with my M typ 240 were taken on days I wasn't riding my bicycle (bouncing an RF mechanism in a bike pannier seemed a very bad idea), but I did manage to run through (almost) all of my 50mm Leica mount (LTM and M) lenses, which I mostly used wide open to emphasise (exaggerate?) their characteristics. Others were with my (2012?) Canon G1 X APS-C(ish) large-sensor digicam, then a few from my X-Pro1 (as I re-familiarise myself with a camera I've never really "bonded with").
What do I think I've learned from all this?
One thing (and I kind-of already knew it) is that some photos work well in colour, some work well in black and white, and that you (well, really it's me) have to take the photo with intent for one or the other. Thinking "I'll decide later" often produces something that's neither Arthur nor Martha and often (and deservedly) hits the reject list.
Another is that, for me, it's harder to take an OK photo in B&W than it is to take an OK colour photo. Of course, taking a good photo of any kind is a lot harder: but I find myself paying more attention when I'm aiming for B&W. That can only be a good thing, right? (I just have to bring that back to colour photography as well.)
As far as my 50mm lenses go:
- My 'old' (late 50s; M-mount) collapsible Summicron can produce surprisingly 'modern-looking' renderings
- My Summitar collapsible (LTM) 50mm isn't that much different from it's Summicron successor (and is a nice lens itself)
- My Canon "Japanese Summilux" 50mm/f1.4 is a really nice lens, full-stop; and remarkably well-behaved at all apertures
- My ZM C-Sonnar 50mm/f1.5 is a really good lens, and not as problematic as it's online reputation would have you think
- My Konica M-Hexanon 50mm/f2 isn't quite as good as I remember it, and doesn't really shine 'til stopped down to f4ish
As far as dedicated monochrome vs conversion from colour is concerned, I've decided that the dynamic-range, low-light, and pixel-level acuity advantages (which I'm sure do exist) are concerned, they just aren't enough for me. The big thing that's decided me is the huge range of options available when channel-mixing to convert to B&W from colour. Sure, you can apply colour filters in front of the lens to produce certain effects with a mono-only camera (just as you might for B&W film) but I find the
flexibility of after-the-shot conversion to be more important to me (again, I can see how YMMV).
As an example, this shot:
.. is nothing much. Just a simple photo-of-record, for some construction down the street from me (one McMansion knocked down, to be replaced by what I assume will be another McMansion).
But: as it happens, the arm of the crane was a rather bright blue. But of roughly the same luminosity as the trees behind. In colour, that contrast would stand out. In B&W, not so much. On a mono-only camera, a yellow filter (a strong one, assuming I had one) would have brought that out (and my conversion from colour showed that's pretty much what would have happened).
However that same yellow filter would have turned the street-sign (turn arrow; 35km/h) to near-black, which my initial conversion did. But with that colour conversion, I could mask out the sign, convert the rest of the photo with one mix, and convert the sign with a different mix. Which I did. You can't do that with filters (nor could you have, really, with B&W film plus filter - you can only burn so much).
That kind of thing (plus what I fondly imagine is an eye for B&W, even while carrying a colour-capable camera) is what's decided me against buying a dedicated mono-only camera. That's most decidedly
not to say that other people might decide otherwise, nor to say such cameras are a bad idea (they're not): just to say that for me, at least right now, I can't see the upsides outweighing the downsides.
...Mike
