Sony Monochrome Full frame RX camera ?

Wow, fascinating rumor. I love the part where they note that Sony understand that niche markets are profitable - I consider myself an extreme niche sort of shooter and they certainly scratched my itchy niche with the RX1.

I can't see buying a dedicated B&W camera, though. I just like using color channels in B&W processing too much and I haven't seen anything from the Leica M that convinces me that the end results are better enough to be worth a dedicated sensor. Plus, I'm often surprised how many shots I'd inteded for B&W end up coming to life more in color (and vice versa), so I guess I just like to keep my options open.

But, lordy, it took a monochrome only sensor for Leica to get pretty good at high ISOs. As good as the RX1 sensor ALREADY is at high ISO, it's a little scary how good it might be as a mono-only version. This ought to scare Leica a bit, as Sony in general ought to scare them.

I don't see myself buying it, but I LOVE that they might make one!

-Ray
 
No, I would not buy a monochrome-only camera. Although many of my images become B&W images, I would never want to give up the option of a color image. So, I would be forced to always carry two cameras, the monochrome and a camera capable of producing color images. While I always carry one camera with me (the RX1 99% of the time), I almost never carry two, and carrying two is not a practice I wish to adopt. Plus, the RX1 already produces great B&W images, whether from an in-camera B&W jpeg or converted from raw. For me, the potential improvement in B&W IQ from a monochrome-only camera does not outweigh the versatility of producing color and B&W images from the same camera.
 
I always like the Leica monochrome. Probably the only Leica drf that I ever considered getting but ultimately decided that I did not want to pay the price for a camera while mechanical is built very well, is susceptible to not only digital rot but for me the knowledge that those critical electronic parts are not controlled by Leica, but third party vendors who will eventually end of life those parts.

I have always hoped that someone else would make a monochrome because u get the true resolving power of the sensor that has not been watered down by an AA filter or Bayer or xtran array algo guessing. Thus every pixel represent just a single grey scale point of 256 (0-255 due to 8 bits of info per pixel currently).

I would be glad to c Sony do something here. Not sure I would ever get it, now that sigma has given me the capability to basically get the same effect from their foveon based cameras.

I actually shoot more b&w w/ my dp Merrill then color. Since there is no Bayer or aa, and it uses the top layer of the foveon sensor for the details and luminous info in b&w mode. U get the tonal quality from the rest of the color info.. The raw image has all the color info and true monochrom processing is handled automatically in spp when u set the camera to monochrom mode (leaves a flag in the raw file).. U can use color wheel to control look like putting a yellow or green..etc...filter as u did in your b&w film days..

Of corse it is not a csc or a drf, but w/ an ovf on it, the dp series actually works out pretty well.

Gary




Sent from my iPad using SeriousCompacts
 
I got to borrow a Leica Monochrom for a day and loved how easy the files were to work with, this was before I got my RX-1. I am a Leica film shooter since 1972, it's just a hobby for me so cost has to equal value as I am not rich. And as stated above a Leica digital M camera does not make $$ sense. Most of my pictures that I print are in b&w so would I be interested in a RX-1M YES!!!!

Here are a few prints from my first outing with the RX-1 shot over 2 hours.

rx-1

wbill
 
Yes, I would, if they fix some other stuff along the way as well, such as improved AF by a lot more and not just a "touch faster" than current versions and also fix the manual focus setting as well.

But to be honest, Im really, really, seriously waiting to see what Ricoh will do with the GR or GXR lines. If they do come up with something id jump their wagon instead. Monochrome files you get from the GR are absolutely comparable to the Leica Monochrom (which Ive used). Sadly no one knows what are those guys doing as they have probably the worst marketing department in history.
 
Back
Top