Pentax Monochrome

Freakscene said:
Lots of us are, but it’s very unlikely to happen. The Sony STARVIS IMX571BQR-J sensor in the regular/colour K-3iii was already offered in a monochrome version, the STARVIS IMX571BLR-J, so it was relatively simple for Pentax to make the K-3iii Monochrome. There is no pre-existing monochrome version of the sensor in the GRIII or the K-1 sensor, so whatever we want, we probably won’t get a monochrome version of those cameras.

Marty
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I do have a K1 monochrome, converted of course (debayered), using it for over a year now. I'll get a few pics posted later today or tomorrow, but I've previously had both a debayered K3 and, for a brief time, the K3III Monochrome. They're all great cameras, and to be honest the K3III was the easiest of the group to use. Highlight-weighted metering is a great help, and file-processing is easier and more straightforward too. But I'm not willing to sell my K1 Mono and having two black and white only cameras at the same time is silly.

But starting off fresh, I'd opt for the K3III Monochrome. There's not a lot of difference in the finished photos between a K1Mono and K3III Mono when using them as most of us do. Yeah, I can tell the difference in cropped images and certain studio work, but otherwise I don't think I could.

Lenses? In my glass collection I have three that perform particularly well on a monochrome: The Pentax A16 (built-in filters for mono), the far newer DFA50 which is amazing for people stuff, and the older FA135. I have also purchased a Pentax 1000mm F/11 that will be here late this week. Why pray-tell when I have a perfectly nice auto-focus DFA150-450 for long-range stuff? It's the extreme range with built-in black and white filters. Who knows, might be a bust, but IMO it's worth giving it a shot... or several. :)
 
Gatorguy said:
I do have a K1 monochrome, converted of course (debayered), using it for over a year now. I'll get a few pics posted later today or tomorrow, but I've previously had both a debayered K3 and, for a brief time, the K3III Monochrome. They're all great cameras, and to be honest the K3III was the easiest of the group to use. Highlight-weighted metering is a great help, and file-processing is easier and more straightforward too. But I'm not willing to sell my K1 Mono and having two black and white only cameras at the same time is silly.

But starting off fresh, I'd opt for the K3III Monochrome. There's not a lot of difference in the finished photos between a K1Mono and K3III Mono when using them as most of us do. Yeah, I can tell the difference in cropped images and certain studio work, but otherwise I don't think I could.

Lenses? In my glass collection I have three that perform particularly well on a monochrome: The Pentax A16 (built-in filters for mono), the far newer DFA50 which is amazing for people stuff, and the older FA135. I have also purchased a Pentax 1000mm F/11 that will be here late this week. Why pray-tell when I have a perfectly nice auto-focus DFA150-450 for long-range stuff? It's the extreme range with built-in black and white filters. Who knows, might be a bust, but IMO it's worth giving it a shot... or several. :)
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Your debayered K1 still has firmware which assumes colour input, which creates output different to a dedicated monochrome camera.

I do agree about Pentax lenses - why not just get a drawer full? They are plentiful, mostly inexpensive, and generally excellent. I bet that 1000mm f11 will be very interesting. It will turn all your out of focus specular highlights into sparkling little doughnuts too.

Marty
 
Freakscene said:
Interesting. Have the current wildlife high pathogenicity avian influenza outbreaks made it to where you live?
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Good question - haven't heard any reports about flu among seabirds here in Oregon yet.

The image above did remind me of the film "Albatross" by the photographer/film-maker Chris Jordan:

The Story of Albatross

In that case, the magnificent birds of Midway Island were being killed by the ingestion of plastic debris floating in the Pacific. Beautiful film -- sad and poignant -- deeply moving.
 
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