Pentax Monochrome

Posted yesterday, New York Times "Wirecutter" article on using digital monochrome cameras, "The Anachronistic Joy of Black-and-White Photography" by Phil Ryan:

The Anachronistic Joy of Black-and-White Photography

The article comments on both the Pentax K-3iii Monochrome and Leica M11 Monochrom cameras, with well-processed sample images from each.

The main gist of the article, though, is more of a general discussion of the special attributes of b&w-only sensors -- along with some of the whys and wherefores of using them.

The article closes with the question: "Should you get a digital black-and-white camera?"

And suggests the answer for most people will be, "Probably not."

(Read on to discover why -- if you are an active RFF member -- the answer could more likely be "YES!")
 
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vitaly66 said:
Posted yesterday, New York Times "Wirecutter" article on using digital monochrome cameras, "The Anachronistic Joy of Black-and-White Photography" by Phil Ryan:

The Anachronistic Joy of Black-and-White Photography

The article comments on both the Pentax K-3iii Monochrome and Leica M11 Monochrom cameras, with well-processed sample images from each.

The main gist of the article, though, is more of a general discussion of the special attributes of b&w-only sensors -- along with some of the whys and wherefores of using them.

The article closes with the question: "Should you get a digital black-and-white camera?"

And suggests the answer for most people will be, "Probably not."

(Read on to discover why -- if you are an active RFF member -- the answer could more likely be "YES!")
Click to expand...
Decent article!
 
vitaly66 said:
Posted yesterday, New York Times "Wirecutter" article on using digital monochrome cameras, "The Anachronistic Joy of Black-and-White Photography" by Phil Ryan:

The Anachronistic Joy of Black-and-White Photography

The article comments on both the Pentax K-3iii Monochrome and Leica M11 Monochrom cameras, with well-processed sample images from each.

The main gist of the article, though, is more of a general discussion of the special attributes of b&w-only sensors -- along with some of the whys and wherefores of using them.

The article closes with the question: "Should you get a digital black-and-white camera?"

And suggests the answer for most people will be, "Probably not."

(Read on to discover why -- if you are an active RFF member -- the answer could more likely be "YES!")
Click to expand...
The ‘should you’ question is almost entirely personal.

The images are well-processed, but the Leica ones, particularly the middle two, show the result of the interaction between the strange Leica metering - I’ll bet that the reviewer didn’t have the highlight weighted metering turned on - and inexperienced image processing. The learning curve on the Pentax is much les steep - which is saying something, because it’s still pretty steep.

Marty
 
vitaly66 said:
cute studio w/ river view...



Pentax K-3iii Monochrome, ZK25mm/2.8
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The Zeiss approach to contrast and maintaining coarse scale contrast at ~5 lp/mm works really well with these cameras. The ZK 25mm is the same design as the Contax Yashica lens which was introduced with the Contax RTS SLR system in 1975.
 
Freakscene said:
The Zeiss approach to contrast and maintaining coarse scale contrast at ~5 lp/mm works really well with these cameras. The ZK 25mm is the same design as the Contax Yashica lens which was introduced with the Contax RTS SLR system in 1975.
Click to expand...
What I like most about the Distagon is the focal length -- 25mm is just great on APS-C. I'm not as keen on the size and weight, about 3x heavier and longer than the average Pentax DA limited lens :<
 
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