Comments on: [Gear] Who Needs Color? $8,000 Leica Camera Shoots Only Black And White

By: Shannon Wimberly

Shannon Wimberly — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:01:00 +0000

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By: Ralph Hightower

Ralph Hightower — Sat, 12 May 2012 22:11:00 +0000

What’s wrong with B&W film? So far, I’ve shot 29 rolls of B&W film this year. Y2K12BW: 2012, the year I use B&W exclusively; but photography is not my vocation. 2012 is the year that I experiment; I am learning to visualize in B&W.

By: ChristophZiegenhardt

ChristophZiegenhardt — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:44:00 +0000

Here’s a different kind of review on the Leica M Monochrome: http://www.czed.com/blog/2012/05/12/a-different-review-of-the-leica-m-monochrome/

By: bertbopper

bertbopper — Sat, 12 May 2012 10:55:00 +0000

Only if you screw on a colour filter that takes away 1-2 stops of light. Without filter, aberration messes up, a thing that is usually corrected easily by software on bayer sensor output.

By: bertbopper

bertbopper — Sat, 12 May 2012 10:51:00 +0000

It’s a shame that Leica, a company that knows all about optics, comes up with the resolution argument. It is invalid. Why? Real life is in colour: colour means aberration. No matter if the sensor is B&W, the different colour rays of light land at different points on the sensor. Bayer filters allow you to see each colour seperately, and realign them through software (which is common on Nikons for 4 years now, and which Canon is experimenting a little on the 5DmkIII). That is why the D800 is so crazy detailed: it eliminates all lens faults by software, because a Bayer-sensor lets you do that. Aberration:gone, light falloff: gone, curvature: gone. With a B&W sensor, you have too little information to fix these faults. The only option to become tack-sharp, is to screw a yellow or red filter to the lens. It eliminates the advertised 2 stop advantage (the Leica Monochrome is probably just as sensitive as the D800 is in full colour, or even less). I doubt whether Leica can match the 14.4 stop D-range of the D-800 too.

By: uglybugger

uglybugger — Sat, 12 May 2012 10:06:00 +0000

It’s starting to bother me a bit that FStoppers writers are sounding like the trolls an the commenters are the well-informed ones.

Guys, please do your homework before posting troll-bait stories like this.

By: Gareth Bogdanoff

Gareth Bogdanoff — Sat, 12 May 2012 02:50:00 +0000

Geez. If I had that kind of cash, I would save it for a Phase One. I suppose it’s too much to ask for Leica/Cannon/Nikon et al to make their cameras more modular. If you could swap out the sensor module, it would make more sense to manufacture sensors exclusively for black and white.

By: kongmw

kongmw — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:17:00 +0000

I’d take a M6 and a TON of B&W film any day of the week… Honestly though, one most likely will not be able to tell the difference in sharpness without some serious pixel-peeping…

By: RUSS

RUSS — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:13:00 +0000

I cannot see limiting ones self to only being able to do black and white photos, for a price of $7950.00?
black and white pics can be amazing. But color can be amazing as well. Why only have one choice?
With today’s technology in the latest releases, having more detail is a mute point.
It’s a big deal that an over priced camera only shoots black and white? To me, it isn’t worth the paper the advertisements are printed on.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:16:00 +0000

I’d love to know the demograpic of their customers…