Mono(chrome) Mania Update

 

Corn at the harvest (large)

GMS (Great Monochrome Safari) Update: I took the plunge! Delayed by COVID.

After several weeks of paralysis by analysis, I decided to convert the Sigma fp rather than the A6600. And off it went, yesterday morning. 

 

Wet asphalt (large)

I photographed both days this weekend. Got some okay things. Whatever the result is, I really like being out and looking around, and I'm very gratified when I'm able to enjoy good light. Taking B&W pictures again is very satisfying. I'm aware, in a lot of situations, that I haven't quite found the picture; but that's okay. The important thing is being out looking for it. I like the process for its own sake.

Rain across the valley (large)

In some essential way, I really do trust the process of working away at something. I can already feel my processing decisions getting not only incrementally better, but also incrementally easier. Gradually, I'll get better at working with this equipment as I do more of it.

Barn roof (large)

I'll keep you posted! I'm excited to get the fp back.

Mike

Book o' the Week

Annie Leibovitz. At long last, the unlimited trade edition of the humongous, limited Sumo edition by Taschen. Mind you, this is still a huge book—15.4 inches high, 556 pages, and almost 13 pounds. And the price! (But that's nothing—the Sumo weighed 57 pounds and cost $7,500.) This is the closest ordinary folks (with ordinary shelves) will get to the ultimate Annie.

The book link above is a portal to any purchase at Amazon. You're very kind use our links, as they help support the site.

B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Daniel: "I believe Fuji should make an X-ProM. A Monochrome camera using the X-Pro body. Leica is doing well with Monochrome and Fuji is 'the poor man's Leica,' even to the nice set of 'Fujichron' lenses."

Mike replies: Well, I had been waiting for something like that for many years by the time the Leica Monochrom came out, and that was more than a decade ago now. Photographers have been extremely ill-served by digital when it comes to B&W. I'm not sure I'm entirely satisfied by the crude solution of stripped sensors, but I want to get back to work; it's been too long.

It wouldn't require genius-level engineering for one of the cameramakers to design and make a sensor specifically designed for B&W, which at this point could certainly include tweaking the spectral response. I imagine they could solve the digital highlight problem by making it so that different photosites had different sensitivities. Fuji did do that many years ago—as Thom Hogan writes, "Back in their DSLR days (and a few compacts, as well), Fujifilm made sensors that had dual photosites per pixel position: one gathered highlight info, one gathered shadow info." With today's ultra-high resolution sensors, it seems possible that they could do the same thing better by just applying ND filtering on every other pixel. I don't know the science. But it's probably true that a sensor deliberately designed for B&W could run rings around all the solutions we have available to us now. It's a shame we've been without that for so long.

Kenneth Tanaka: "Re 'The important thing is being out looking for it. I like the process for its own sake.' Bullseye 🎯 ! I’ve not found any activity that gives me more visual and creative enjoyment than simply walking around with a camera. I 'shoot' nothing but pictures. I 'take' nothing but images. Glad to see you’re healthy again and out with a camera, Mike. Nothing better for the mind and body!"

Jeff Hohner: "Hot damn. What is it that thrills me so about B&W? It's not just nostalgia. It must be my photographer's eye which was calibrated by B&W and still is. Thanks for sharing your work. I'm following your B&W adventures with much envy and vicarious pleasure."

Comments

[Jeff]

Mike wrote: “I'll keep you posted!”

Literally.

[Tom Burke]

The in-line versions of the images really don't do them justice, Mike. Full-screen on a 24" 4k monitor is a different story....

[I agree. They're better on Flickr, which is why I linked there. As prints, I would think most of them would be best on 17x22", with reasonable borders. --Mike]

[Earl Dunbar]

An X-Pro can be modified to b&w. For $1500 USD. I can’t say the cost is too high for the work/skill involved, but sadly it’s not in my budget.

[Paulo Bizarro]

I do not know who makes the sensor in the Monochrom Leica, but if it is available for others... well, then the sensor hurdle is overcome, right? Other brands could use it.

[Bob G.]

Bravo! Keep it up! Love the results as well as the effort!
Maybe hold onto the loaner until you get yours back to compare the conversions?

[David Bateman]

Sony makes both color filter array sensors and monochrome versions of many of their sensors. So not hard for a manufacturer whom uses Sony sensors, as in most camera manufacturers, to order a whole bunch and test the market. Nothing really special needed. Many of the monochrome versions appear in Astrophotography cameras or manufacturing cameras. The Sony Imx571 sensor in the current 26Mpixel Fujifilm cameras is available from Sony as monochrome, you can get it in the Zwo ASI 2600 camera as eith color (MC) or monochrome as (MM) versions.

Hopefully some manufacturer will just release two versions of the exact same camera, one with CFA the other monochrome. Like Nikon did with the D800 and D800e.

[DavidPl24914996]

Really enjoying your recent b&w work as they remind me of some palladium prints I did back in the 90’s.

The bench with the ‘under lighting’ made the whole image pop on the screen! Keep working those curves!

As a side note: I read your site on an iPad Pro and use Reader Mode which gives a grey background so the B&Ws look great. Unfortunately, with Reader Mode the comments are left out! Do you have any control over that?

[No, sorry. --Mike]

[KeithB]

Hmm, I wonder if a Foveon sensor would be good for B&W. Basically, rather than combining all three signals from the pixel to get RGB, choose a particular color from the well and just get the intensity of that color.

This will let you choose which color the sensor responds to.

[Dave]

Mike,

That storage building in "Rain Across the Valley" brings to mind those bright crosses in that Adams photograph. :>)

[SteveW]

You probably have heard this before, I just read this quote today:

“The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.” --Igor Stravinsky (Composer)

[Tim Gray]

I'd buy an X-Pro Monochrom. But I don't know anyone else who would. My guess is the decision-makers at Fujifilm likely ran the numbers and decided years ago it would be too small a niche to make it worth producing.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Good to see you taking pictures! Beyond simple snapshots.

[hans muus]

Mike,
have you in your monochrome quest also come across this camera, albeit only at a distance, and if so, what are your thoughts about it?

https://pixii.fr/monochrome

[Dan Khong]

Mike

Your B&W pictures have that period and mood look resembling the early part of the last century. The clouds are captured nicely with your new toy.

Dan K.

[Peter Williams]

More on the Fuji monochrome thing, I'd probably be more likely to go for it in the X-E[n] level, lower price, simpler camera, similar ergonomics and handling, and the same lens choices. It'd be a specialty camera for me, with limited use, so the lower priced X-E[n] would be an easier purchasing decision.

[I agree with you. Although in my opinion the best candidate for a mono version would be the old X-T1, with video removed. We're really just whistling dixie here, though, as no one is going to make a mono camera now. --Mike]

[JOHN B GILLOOLY]

Love Barn Roof. Question: When you replced the sensor of the Sony, did that eliminate all autofocus capabilities? What other tech features were lost with the original sensor gone?

[I prefer to use manual focus on this camera because it's so nice--when you touch the focus ring, the view zooms way in and red peaking shows peak focus. However the camera still autofocuses with the converted sensor. I've read that the AF is not quite as good as it is with an unmolested camera. --Mike]

[Bill barton]

Mike I am looking forward to your fp monochrom as I have a A7s and the fp and can't make up my mind on which one to do it to. I use the same Leica mount lenses on both cameras

[Andy F]

As its already been stated Sony manufacturers monochrome sensors, they have a 102 MP 44x33 sensor to the small 20MP one in my Huawei phone.

I wouldn't say all hope of a cheaper than Leica monochrome camera has been lost.

https://pentaxrumors.com/2022/04/08/pentax-k-3-mark-iii-monochrome-and-k-70-dedicated-to-astrophotography/

[David Aiken]

KeithB wondered about the Sigma foveon sensor as a B&W option. I have to experience myself but Gregory Simpson who has used a Leica Monochrom and wrote a series of blog articles on it has tried using a Sigma Merrill DP3 for black and white photography and wrote a series of 3 articles about it on his blog. The following link will take you to a search results page from which you may access his 3 blog articles:

https://www.ultrasomething.com/?s=Foveon+black+and+white

[Dogman]

I really love the corn shot. It tells me you'll really do well with a monochrome camera of your own.

[Jim K]

KeithB:

In my opinion the Foveon cameras make very good B/W cameras--you have a 'best of both worlds' with regards to acuity at the pixel level. Foveon sensors aren't nearly as good in low light situations as the current CFA sensors, but the noise pattern (which can be ugly in color) is actually quite 'grainy' in B/W. I've loved doing B/W with them over the years...

[ChrisC]

Now that you have ordered a conversion, Fuji will announce a monochrome model within the next month :)

[Robert]

“ It wouldn't require genius-level engineering for one of the cameramakers to design and make a sensor specifically designed for B&W, which at this point could certainly include tweaking the spectral response. I imagine they could solve the digital highlight problem by making it so that different photosites had different sensitivities.”

Yes, exactly this. A sensor designed to cope with extreme highlights. An X-Pro 2 or something close, with such a sensor (though the Leica Monochrom 246 is not bad). Please.

[Les Myers]

I, too, love the "rain..." photo, and particularly the highlights in the grasses!

Les