I am currently using a slightly out-of-date Panasonic Lumix GX8 camera - but like quite a few Lumixes I've used in the past, it features some nifty in-camera monochrome 'styles'. Which, to be honest, most of the time I never use - I've always tended to do monochrome conversions from RAW files, in Lightroom, with occasional dedicated monochrome plug-ins like Nik's Silver Efex, just for fun. And, unlike the newer Lumixes - including the GX9 and the G9 - as well as the all-in-one FZ1000ii - which all feature the even niftier (apparently) l. monochrome d. filter - with my older GX8, the most interesting (to me) available one... was the 'Dynamic Monochrome' setting.
So I put the camera in Dynamic Monochrome mode (a dial selection) and went for a walk up the rural lane which runs from my house up into the foothills of some southern Oregon mountains. It was a cloudy day---
One of the first things you learn in a dedicated Picture Mode - is that once you've selected it, the camera automates the process - i.e. it chooses what it feels is an appropriate shutter speed and aperture as well. I'm not a fan of this kind of automation but I didn't have much choice.
To my surprise, the tonal qualities turn out to be... interesting. And the GX8's EVF is a decent tool for 'seeing' what one is framing in monochrome - although for many reasons what you 'see' is always different than the look of the digital negative the camera produces.
The lens I'm using for these is the (in my opinion) excellent (and underrated) 12-35mm Lumix G zoom, with a fixed f/2.8 aperture and rather good image quality for a zoom.
It's actually rather fun, for a change, to have the camera create usable and interesting monochrome photos by itself, instead of having to labor away in after-the-fact post processing.
I think my favorite images, though, are the wider landscapes - keeping the zoom lens at its wider end.
This photo - of a local irrigation ditch - has tonal qualities which I find really pleasing.
The last image, at the end of the walk, is of a four-legged neighbor, having a quiet afternoon. I had the GX8 set to RAW + jpeg - but the color RAW image felt busy and wrong... whereas the monochrome comes closer to what I had in the back of my mind, before pressing the shutter.
Bottom line: I think I'm going to keep using this Picture Mode for awhile.... just to see what it can produce.
If other Lumixians care to contribute their own Monochromes to this thread, dive in! I'd be especially interested to see samples of "l monochrome d" which so many users rave about --- does it live up to its billing?
Panasonic Anyone have any experience with the Panasonic DMC L1 Four Thirds camera?