How did you end up with a Monochom?

[przemol]

Hello,
I wanted to ask everyone here - how did you end up shooting with Monochrom?
Why did you choose it over the other Leica M (and other) cameras?

I noticed that I have been using my MM way more than the M9P and Typ 262.

What is your story?

 

[peterm1]

I do not have a Monochrom but more recently have been thinking about it. These days I mainly shoot in RAW, in color of course, (which it then process in various ways including in maybe 10% of cases converting to a monochrome image.)

The thing that set me thinking about the Monochrom was when I realized the implications of having a camera that saved in RAW - in black and white with all of that info from the mono sensor intact. One reason I do not presently shoot in black and white in camera is that it means shooting in JPG which these days I seldom do given the loss of image quality. I suspect that if I owned a Monochrom I would be shooting black and white much more often than the 10% I mentioned above.

 

[Calzone]

If Leica didn't create the M- Monochrom I likely would still be a film only die hard. My Monochrom is seven years old, had its sensor replaced and was overhauled for free, and I still own it. Warts and all the MM is still a great camera.

I would even say that it is so primitive and basic that it is the digital camera that is most like a basic film camera. I love the CCD sensor for its broad midrange rendering.

I also own a SL. Not the same making B&W with a color camera.

BTW I still shoot 135 and medium format film.

Cal

 

[Dektol Dan]

Why the Monochrom?

Why the Monochrom?

My Mono is 6 years old, I chose to get it instead if the M9 color.
I didn't own a color digital Leica until I bought the M10.

I have Minolta, Nikon, and other film scanners together I paid thousands for. Film still is the best image! I have digital SLR Canons so there was no incentive to get a color Leica. I've been shooting Leicas from the time I bought an M2 in the late 60's. The Mono CCD sensor looks like film, right down to the grain.

My Mono's sensor is the original CCD with no corrosion yet.
I have yet to see a survey of how many Mono cameras still have the original sensor. My belief is that the sensor issues are humidity related. I live in Phoenix AZ (what's humidity?).

If I couldn't have my Mono I would choose the M8 for B&W.
The M10 is damn good for B&W though!

 

[Calzone]

Dan,

I think in your post you mention how your CCD sensor resembles film in its rendering. I would agree with that.

I mention how shooting my color camera how different it is to my Monochrom. In my case it is a SL and a CMOS sensor.

To me the CCD sensor has its own unique rendering, and it does resemble film like you say.

Cal

 

[Godfrey]

I ordered an M Monochrom typ 246 when they were announced. The reason I don't have one is that after waiting for at least five-six months, they hadn't delivered it yet, no dealer had it in stock yet, and the Leica SL was announced. I cancelled my order and placed an order for the SL, which was delivered on exactly the day that the announcement had stated.

Such it is. The SL is now gone, the digital Ms I had are now gone. I'm very happy with the digital Leica CL ... and waiting for the Hasselblad 907x Special Edition.

😀

G

Equipment is transitory. Photographs endure.

 

[Richard G]

This was in response to a similar question a while back:

Mine is in for free sensor replacement at almost 5 years. The camera is magic. It is different to film. I still shoot black and white film. If I had to choose it would be the Monochrom. It is like pushing Tri-X 2-3 stops and getting Plus X negatives. It is like medium format tonal subtlety at base ISO. The detail is sometimes astonishing. The shutter is smoother and quieter than my M9-P. I had to have it. I have to keep it.

 

[Rob-F]

The Monochrome files are like Plus-X? I would like that.

 

[Calzone]

The Monochrome files are like Plus-X? I would like that.

Rob,

Perhaps like Plus-X. To me the grain kinda reminds me of old thick emulsion inbeteewn Tri-X and Plus-X.

Grain visibility depends on print size. Bigger prints resemble more Tri-X, and smaller prints Plus-X.

Cal

 

[james.liam]

My Mono's sensor is the original CCD with no corrosion yet.
I have yet to see a survey of how many Mono cameras still have the original sensor.
!

How many are left? A Leica mystery. Maybe I'll start that poll here...

My belief is that the sensor issues are humidity related. I live in Phoenix AZ (what's humidity?).
!

I recall threads about this and humidity had nothing to do with it; it was the chemical bond. Not sure if you're lucky insofar that you may end up paying a pretty pfennig to have it replaed when (not if) it fails. Assuming, of course, they have any more left when that happens.

 

[Dektol Dan]

My take on the threads was that it was humidity that broke the chemical bond. It could be my memory is corroded.

Some issues that are wrongly assumed to be corrosion, are not.

If the 'corrosion' that first appears at different f stops and ISO, something commonly described, it is NOT corrosion. The sensor may have a dead pixel that appears as corrosion in the image, but is not.

The dead pixel blocks all the following pixels read linearly. The sensor has to be reprogrammed by Leica in Germany to skip the dead pixel which otherwise kills all the following pixels that are read thereafter. That is often easily mistaken for corrosion.

My camera had this issue from new but not discovered until many months of use later. I did research on this and did sent it back to have it reset. It's fine now.

I did not send it for repair with a complaint about corrosion, but I can easily see why MANY M9 owners would assume that corrosion is what they had!

I posted to a thread addressing the issue I am referring to some 5 years ago.

Just ask yourself, what are the chances of having a single dead pixel on a monitor or TV? I would say the same chances are possible for a camera's sensor. What percentage of sensors replaced are not corrosion? Who knows?

I still wouldn't assume my sensor will fail here in Arizona. Maybe I'm just lucky!

 

[DwF]

I was shooting with an M9, a camera that I loved in spite of it's quirks. It was August in 2016 and I was traveling in Nice where I came upon a camera shop that had several used Leicas. There were two used Monochrom cameras on the shelf. I had been impressed by the MM images I'd seen to the point of intrigued to have at one. I managed a fairly good deal in trade with for my M9. Being in Nice and running around taking pictures, I felt a bit fancy free and just went with my urge.

I've recently considered selling the MM to fund an M 262 or M10 so I could enjoy my Leica glass in color again, but then I shoot with it, and play with the files. It also feels really nice to shoot with and focus on both colors- black and white 😉

David

Here are a couple of the first images I made with it.

 

[james.liam]

I've recently considered selling the MM to fund an M 262 or M10 so I could enjoy my Leica glass in color again, but then I shoot with it, and play with the files. It also feels really nice to shoot with and focus on both colors- black and white 😉

David

Don't sell the MM!

 

[DwF]

Don't sell the MM!

I know, and thanks for the reality check James!

I'm currently advertising another camera so I won't sell the MM. I've been thinking M10 for some time but went and fondled an M262 the other day and the weight of that one appeals to me. I never thought I'd come round to the thicker size of the M digitals but it balanced better for me and the files skin tones at least in the light where I was shooting looked good. I find the M10 feels heavy in the hand. A combination of those extra few grams and the smaller size I guess. When it comes down to it though, I may just buck up and get the M10.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Back to the OP:
I traded my late model M7 plus cash to a fellow RFFer for his demo-unit M246. We had horse-traded other Fuji/Leica gear, and so had collegial respect and ease with one another’s values and valuations; our timing was perfect in helping each other move in our opposing digital/film directions.

I’ve known for several years I was going away from 35mm film. Making images is a passion, yes, but never the only one in my life, and the so-called pleasures of the darkroom are both distant and few. During my digital decade since 2009, I’ve been moving in this direction—using monochrome display on digitals (Panasonic->Ricoh->Fuji->Sony), converting raw to monochrome jpgs...the 246 is a logical culmination.

I was shooting it at a farm this morning with a 21/2.8, plus the M-D 262 with a 50/2.8. They work well together, and the files are, for me, nearly a WYSWYG ideal, in how the final image tends to bear out my previsualization, with a few Lightroom tweaks. (I bought the M-D 262 when I retired in 2017; satisfaction in its filmic minimalist practice has helped prep me for the 246, as well as for selling off 35mm film gear and less-used digitals.)

For over a decade, then, I’ve tried a good deal of gear, mostly RF and mirrorless, in the interest of making monochromatic images. I seem to have arrived at a proper plateau with the digital Ms. They don’t yet do it all for me—they don’t do AF, they don’t have a Foveon sensor, they’re not a Ricoh GR—but they are first-call tools. The fact that the photographers whose work I most admire use the same tools is not coincidental.

 

[Rob-F]

MM Monochrom GAS

MM Monochrom GAS

The last couple of weeks, I have acquired a case of GAS for the original 18MP Monochrom. I suspect I'm being somewhat irrational, since for some time now I've only been viewing my digital shots on the 21" iMac (and almost as often, the 15" MacBook). I haven't been printing digital files since I threw out my Canon i9000.

And yet I'm ready to sell my SWC/M to help fund it, and probably my Leica M6 non-TTL, to complete the funding. I'll still have my 500C/M with 40mm Distagon, and enough film Leicas.

I'm not sure I need it, because color files from the M9, or even my D700, converted to black & white in Aperture, look good to me. But it seems to me that sometimes I can see why the shots others have published here look excellent, very detailed, even on the iMac. And with my best lenses, I think I could equal or exceed the quality of the SWC/M, using the MM, if I pay to have some shots blown up to, say, 14 x 20 or so.

So, are you going to talk me out of it, or what?

 

[Freakscene]

I wanted to ask everyone here - how did you end up shooting with Monochrom?
Why did you choose it over the other Leica M (and other) cameras?

I noticed that I have been using my MM way more than the M9P and Typ 262.

What is your story?

It is a native black and white digital camera. That's it.

Marty

 

[Richard G]

The last couple of weeks, I have acquired a case of GAS for the original 18MP Monochrom. I suspect I'm being somewhat irrational, since for some time now I've only been viewing my digital shots on the 21" iMac (and almost as often, the 15" MacBook). I haven't been printing digital files since I threw out my Canon i9000.

And yet I'm ready to sell my SWC/M to help fund it, and probably my Leica M6 non-TTL, to complete the funding. I'll still have my 500C/M with 40mm Distagon, and enough film Leicas.

I'm not sure I need it, because color files from the M9, or even my D700, converted to black & white in Aperture, look good to me. But it seems to me that sometimes I can see why the shots others have published here look excellent, very detailed, even on the iMac. And with my best lenses, I think I could equal or exceed the quality of the SWC/M, using the MM, if I pay to have some shots blown up to, say, 14 x 20 or so.

So, are you going to talk me out of it, or what?

Yes, and No. There's a good soothing thread here at RFF on the M9 black and white output. The black and white jpegs in particular are very good. No-one needs the MM. But everything is different when I have that camera in hand.

 

[Chris101]

I would love to have a Monochrom. That's how I see - in black and white. Well, technically in shades of brown with the occasional blue, but mostly monochrome, due to extreme deuteranopia

I have several digital cameras, and usually just take a mono image from them. But who can afford a Leica MM? Well, I'll keep my eye out for an honest bargain. Until then my M4-P turns out black and white images all day long.

 

[Rob-F]

Yes, and No. There's a good soothing thread here at RFF on the M9 black and white output. The black and white jpegs in particular are very good. No-one needs the MM. But everything is different when I have that camera in hand.

You mean this thread?

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129905

(Also has some comments about the M8.2.)

Or did you mean this one:
https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139399

Could you say more about everything being different with the MM?