What do you think of this new Pentax Monochrome?
April 12, 2023
20
-
-
I think is cool, but after using an M monochrome along with my M9P taking the exact same pictures... IMHO I rather have a color sensor and the chance to work on Lightroom for the ocassional black and white image!
-
I thought the press release isn’t until tomorrow. There was a leak…but is it real? I hope so.
-
You didn't see any benefit to using the Monochrome version
Personally, I've never had the opportunity to test a Monochrome version. -
I'm sure 😎
-
I just saw the announcement…so it looks genuine. I’ve played with Leica mono vs color converted to mono. I prefer the quality of the real mono versions.
-
I read it at Petapixel, our trusty news outlet 😂
I mean files look great, personally I wouldn't invest that amount of money on one.
Allan Schaller takes amazing images with his monochrome Leicas I highly recommend him:
-
I read it at…gulp…DPReview
-
Fantastic news!
-
Ok... the truth is I read it there too (first) 😂😂😂😂
-
Interesting user review www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ5LtayQrpo
In summary, he loved using the camera but in terms of the final image, didn't feel the monochrome sensor provided significant benefits over converting a colour image to B+W
-
On the other hand, he wants B&W in the Ricoh GR III :). He said it would be great to have it for the low-light capabilities.
For those that care, the increased resolution of a monochrome sensor can matter (e.g., for landscape shots). Samuel did not analyze the details.P.S.: I read it first on DPRevived (email notification).
-
That's certainly more flexible, but there is something very natural and wholesome about having all the pixels have the same response to light. The extreme case would be shooting in a room lit by narrow-band 650nm red LEDs. You will capture about 10x-15x more light with a monochrome sensor than with a typical Bayer sensor, with the same Av and Tv values. You will also have none of the egregious "nearly-point-sampled" aliasing that you would get with 3/4 of the pixels nearly blind to red light, especially with no AA filter and/or larger pixels. The downside is that there is no potential to change "color filtration" after the fact with a single exposure from a monochrome sensor.
-
I think this is an interesting video about the Pentax K3M, with findings on par with mine when I use the Leica MM:
-
The exact same video was shared three posts above ;-)
It looks like there are not enough thorough reviews out there (yet!?). What I would be interested in is the difference in image quality on a more solid foundation (not just opinion), and some answers to questions like how much can you increase ISO until you run into IQ troubles (opinion, but something which Leica did right while introducing their Monochrom edition).
Currently it looks like a mixed bag to me. Maybe the APS-C format is just too small for this use case.
But, daaamn, it certainly looks sexy with that black finish.
-
I’m sure the standard findings will apply regardless of being APSC …better noise, higher resolution.
-
Sure, but the devil is in the details, practicable ISO limit, when do concentrical circles appear when pushing shadows, and do they appear at all, …? This is the stuff I’m interested in.
-
In standard lighting and subject colors, a monochrome APS-C sensor can easily get as many photoelectrons with the same exposure as with a color FF sensor. It can get even more when the light or subject matter is highly colored. An extreme example is a room lit by 650nm red LEDs; a monochrome APS-C can get 4x to 6x the total charge of a color FF sensor with the same exposure. A CFA discards about 65% of red light in the red pixels, and 95%+ in the blue and green pixels. CFAs are extremely inefficient.
Just because the base ISO does not go up much in the monochrome version of a sensor, there is no reason to assume that efficiency only goes up that much, because a CFA capture is typically weak in one or more color channels for any given subject matter and lighting.
-
I you search outside DPRevived, you will find many more reviews. I hope that Sean Reid will run a detailed analysis at some point. At the moment, he is busy publishing his Leica M11 Monochrom findings.
-
Monochrome gives more resolution and lower noise on same size sensor. How would the Monochrome stack up vs the color 645Z?
The stock Z already has more resolution and less noise than APS-c sensors. I have the 645Z and lenses and numerous K mount optics. Would a K-3 Monochrome compete with a stock Z for landscape and still life photography?
Thanks,
barondla -
I liked the review.