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Pentax K-3 III Monochrome Sensor!
- Thread starter agentlossing
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- iii monochrome pentax
PetaPixel posted a K- 3 III Monochrome review today. (Presented without personal comment.)
Pentax K-3 III Monochrome Review: A DSLR Just for B&W Photo Lovers
Pentax K-3 III Monochrome Review: A DSLR Just for B&W Photo Lovers
- Location
- Seattle
- Name
- Andrew
Here is my personal comment: the reviewer found it hard to visualize in B&W through an optical viewfinder because it wasn't a B&W EVF.
AndyMcD
Top Veteran
- Location
- East Midlands, UK
Funnily enough, I shoot almost exclusively black and white using Fuji X system but I never use a b&w film simulation so compose using a colour image so this would not be an issue for me. In fact, I find it limiting to compose using a black and white image because I need to see the relative colours to work out how I will convert to black and white from raw.
Definitely a change in mindset/ habits required I'd have thought. That seems to be the case reading the comments from some monochrome users. Then again this theory is strongly disputed by others. I dunno, I guess it's an individual thing but none us will know what suits us until we spend time with a monochrome only camera and we'll only know what suits us once we have spend a good amount of time with one. All this just increases the curiosity of course.
I had a hard time visualizing Infrared Ektachrome when I was 16, but Black and White was never a problem. I was shooting Verichrome Pan in a Kodak Instamatic 150 when I was 8, and Polaroid 3000 in a Model 104 when I was 10. Mowed a lot of lawns to keep in cameras and film in the 1960s.
- Location
- Beaumaris, Melbourne, Australia
- Name
- John ...
I spent the first 10+ years of my photographic life shooting about two thirds b&w, and processing it myself.
It's still really just photography ...
Nothing especially magical about it, just slightly different.
I'm really looking at the image output of the original Leica M9 Monochrom which to my eye rendered unique film like mono images out of camera with no apparent effort and the subsequent more expensive models which to my eye did not. One could of course point to the CCD sensor in the earlier model, but it demonstrated to me with the later models that if I had one of them I'd have to put a lot more effort into "seeing" in B&W and/ or using filters to warrant getting a monochrome camera in place of merely converting a file to B&W. Having said that, nothing wrong with having to put in the effort I suppose.
Buy some older books on photography from the 1930s through to the 1950s. These went into detail about how the human eye perceived color and the transmittance of each filter. Many examples to compare results. It also went into the various types of film. This is a good starting point for anyone that is new to owning a monochrome camera. The difference between the Digital sensor is the linear response, rather than a gamma curve. This is also true with color sensors and film. With a monochrome camera- the images are "flatter" and it shows in the SOOC image.
To add- My first store-bought digital camera was the full-spectrum Kodak DCS200ir, 1.6MPixels- 30 years ago. I worked with digital Mid-Wave and Long-Wave Infrared sensors throughout the 1980s, but we made our own.
To add- My first store-bought digital camera was the full-spectrum Kodak DCS200ir, 1.6MPixels- 30 years ago. I worked with digital Mid-Wave and Long-Wave Infrared sensors throughout the 1980s, but we made our own.
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- Location
- Seattle
- Name
- Andrew
I have just never thought that the way an LCD or EVF rendered a B&W scene had anything for me - either you're using some filter which puts a spin on the light, shadows and tones, or else you're using a monochrome view that is very flat, the way digital cameras "see" the world before editing. Neither one tells me anything about how I'm going to want the image to look. I'd just rather take all of the artifice out of it, and look at the real world.
For me, using an EVF for monochrome was not really ideal. In WYSIWYG mode, protecting highlights usually left me with an EVF image dark enough in the shadows it could cause problems with composing the shot. Allow the brightness to auto adjust, and I ended up with a grainy artificially bright flat image that was hard on my eye.
I'm an odd duck, always have been and probably always will be... having said that I've never been one to visualize/ pre-visualize final output. Or color vs B&W.
It seems many people today are looking at all photography as art, as something that has to be "just so". Not everyone is trying to produce a masterpiece for hanging in a gallery. Some of us are just recoding life as we move through it, recording memories for later years.
For me, back in the film days, the film in the camera was what you shot. Others have probably had a different experience, but I don't ever remember back in those days looking at a potential shot and thinking "this won't look really nice in B&W, so I'll not take the shot until I can get color slide film...".
I've looked at a lot of my old photo scans, especially the ones from my military days. They are most definitely very documentary in nature. I've processed those scanned images as both color and monochrome, and honestly there are very few that have to have color, they work just as well IMHO in monochrome. Some do look better in color due to the uniqueness of the subject/ scene. This is one example, having been there it just doesn't look "correct" in monochrome, although someone who has never seen that sand may not really notice a problem with a monochrome:
These shots are typical of many of my mil photos. IMHO they work in either color or monochrome, although some would say documentary/ journalistic would be more monochrome. From Bucharest back in Dec '89:
In '88 or '89 went on a backpacking trip through Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. I used slide film, until I ran out. Only film I could get for the final leg was B&W, and I had no filters with me and none available at the local store. With the Island In The Sky district being a bit more stark than Arches, I think it worked out OK.
Nothing great from a photographic standpoint. But they are a partial record of my life, and trigger memories for me. In the end, other than a few family members and myself, few people will care about these snaps.
It seems many people today are looking at all photography as art, as something that has to be "just so". Not everyone is trying to produce a masterpiece for hanging in a gallery. Some of us are just recoding life as we move through it, recording memories for later years.
For me, back in the film days, the film in the camera was what you shot. Others have probably had a different experience, but I don't ever remember back in those days looking at a potential shot and thinking "this won't look really nice in B&W, so I'll not take the shot until I can get color slide film...".
I've looked at a lot of my old photo scans, especially the ones from my military days. They are most definitely very documentary in nature. I've processed those scanned images as both color and monochrome, and honestly there are very few that have to have color, they work just as well IMHO in monochrome. Some do look better in color due to the uniqueness of the subject/ scene. This is one example, having been there it just doesn't look "correct" in monochrome, although someone who has never seen that sand may not really notice a problem with a monochrome:
These shots are typical of many of my mil photos. IMHO they work in either color or monochrome, although some would say documentary/ journalistic would be more monochrome. From Bucharest back in Dec '89:
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In '88 or '89 went on a backpacking trip through Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. I used slide film, until I ran out. Only film I could get for the final leg was B&W, and I had no filters with me and none available at the local store. With the Island In The Sky district being a bit more stark than Arches, I think it worked out OK.
Nothing great from a photographic standpoint. But they are a partial record of my life, and trigger memories for me. In the end, other than a few family members and myself, few people will care about these snaps.
Had some clouds today, shot the local hills from here at the complex. With the 60-250 + orange + circular polarizer, standard image profile in camera changed to hard in DCU, the dialed some of the adjustments back a little, no crop, resized for web.
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