Dante_Stella
Rex canum cattorumque
One of the things that has been striking about the X-Pro1 is how good the lenses are. Although the X-Trans sensor is great, it strikes me that a lot of these optics could be put to equally - if not better - use with a monochrome sensor behind them.
We know that the M Monochrom exists - but its $8K price (and 6-12 month wait) seem a little excessive considering the dated (slow) electronics, poor battery life, and deliberate choices about what wavelengths would be allowed (no doubt constrained by the fact that you could get focused shift with color filters in an open-loop RF focusing system).
The X-Pro is probably a better platform, and here's why. First, its closed-loop contrast-detect focusing would eliminate the focus shift problem - because it would assess the actual on-sensor focus. Second, the X-Pro has the ability to show the viewfinder picture in monochrome. And finally, it has a far faster and more bulletproof back-end electronics package. At the end of the day, even if a mono sensor added $1K to the price of the camera, it would still come out at less than 1/3 the price of an MM and be more versatile (like being able to do IR or near IR). I also suspect that if contrast-detect AF were working in monochrome, it might actually work better.
Incidentally, I also wonder if - given the large number of green cells and their arrangement, whether the X-Pro could be reprogrammed for better mono operation (i.e., taking all greens at face value and interpolating the other two channels out).
Thoughts?
Dante
We know that the M Monochrom exists - but its $8K price (and 6-12 month wait) seem a little excessive considering the dated (slow) electronics, poor battery life, and deliberate choices about what wavelengths would be allowed (no doubt constrained by the fact that you could get focused shift with color filters in an open-loop RF focusing system).
The X-Pro is probably a better platform, and here's why. First, its closed-loop contrast-detect focusing would eliminate the focus shift problem - because it would assess the actual on-sensor focus. Second, the X-Pro has the ability to show the viewfinder picture in monochrome. And finally, it has a far faster and more bulletproof back-end electronics package. At the end of the day, even if a mono sensor added $1K to the price of the camera, it would still come out at less than 1/3 the price of an MM and be more versatile (like being able to do IR or near IR). I also suspect that if contrast-detect AF were working in monochrome, it might actually work better.
Incidentally, I also wonder if - given the large number of green cells and their arrangement, whether the X-Pro could be reprogrammed for better mono operation (i.e., taking all greens at face value and interpolating the other two channels out).
Thoughts?
Dante
