Frank:
My understanding of the Monochrom was that it did/does not have a Bayer (or
any) filter, thus no matter which sensor it had (which, I agree, will vary "the
look") it "sees" only amounts of light, which equate to shades of grey - the
same as with B&W films. After all, CMOS and CCD's are inherently colour blind.
No colour mapping required.
From what you have written, I think you are saying that the Monochrom is
mapping a Bayer colour sensor back to (50?) shades of grey. Izzat so?
David.
If you were to use a purely technical evaluation, and all of this comes------
under the title of COLORIMETRY,
A Monochrom camera is a camera that has mapped the real world colors
into a purely B+W world. If you allow, Blue color called BLUESKY254, is
mapped to Grey13.
Repeat for all the colors.
Now this is done with some human element, such that the color
transformation is specific to the camera and the someone that says that
the mapping of BLUESKY254 does indeed look like Grey13.
All of which means that IF ( big IF) you had the time and color tools
available to you, you could map your Nikon D5 into a look alike for the
(grey) colors produced from a Leica Monochrom. All in post. All the
time, all the colors.
As you know, in the film is king days, Tri-x produced a different image
than did Panatomic-X. Same scene. different "Look". So mapping the
color space to B+W is subject to interpretation. The sensor, the person
doing the mapping, the ability to say this is right , etc.
Technically possible. Practically, as far as I know, no one has
actually spent the time to do this. What is done is to fiddle with the
3 different color channels by changing the BASIC inputs in the editing
program to mimic the results of the much more difficult color mapping.
The problem is that it works for this image, but the next one requires
different settings...... and thus people give up and buy a Monochrom.
Some people claim the original Monochrom produced the BEST images
because it used a CCD Sensor. Others claim the new, M10 CMOS based
Monochrom will do a better job. Sort of the argument of which film do
you prefer, Tri-X or Panatomic-X?
Yes, you CAN make a color image into a B+W image in post. Doing it with
each image you own may drive you nuts.
Do the research and find differing settings from differing people and
programs in post to do the transformation. Try them out. What do you
like? What do you not like.... If all this drives you nuts, and you can
afford it, buy a Monochrom.
Or if ALL you want is to take B+W images, buy the Monochrom. No matter
which one you get, the M9 based version, the M240 version , or the M11
Version, it is a matter of .... do you prefer the "LOOK" of Tri-X to
Panatomic-X?
Frank Filippone
BMWRed735i@xxxxxxxxx
On Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 12:36 AM Peter Stevens <dmarc-
noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Good morning to everyone. My memory of the various cameras that
members use here on the site only brings up Peter K. as using a
Monochrome body, so unless there's anyone else out there with
experience with a monochrome I guess my question is for Peter; but in
the abstract it'd be good to hear from anyone regarding image file
manipulation.
An email from the marketing folks at Leica this morning prompts my
question. https://us.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-M/Leica-M10-
Monochrom?utm_source=CRM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&utm_term=https%3a%2
f%2fus.leica-camera.com%2fPhotography%2fLeica-M%2fLeica-M10-Monochrom
They are introducing the M10 Monochrome with a 40MP Sensor for taking
eclusively Black & White images. Is there a significant visual
difference in the files generated by a Leica Monochrome body as
opposed to taking a color file and flipping it to B&W in a photo-
editing program?
Best regards,
Peter S.
