Digital BW, The Print

Paul -

I've already ordered mine!  There are several examples of the RAW DNG files
floating around on the forums. If you download Jono's photos of the Chinese
fisherman and the girl in the scarf and play around with them, it will be
very detrimental to your bank account.  You do have to use filters on the
lens, just like with B&W film, but I still have all of my old filters.  The
detail available in the RAW files is astounding.  I'll be carrying two
digital M's, just like I used to carry two film M's - one for color and one
for B&W.

Tina

On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 5:24 PM, Paul <roark.paul@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> I thought a generalized topic like this might be of interest here.
>
> One of the news stories that has been a major topic of discussion in the
> Leica groups is the soon to be released dedicated B&W Leica -- the Leica
> "Monochrom" or "Leica MM." See
> http://us.leica-camera.com/photography/m_system/m_monochrom/ for the
> usual Leica information and hype. It's basically an M9 with the Bayer (and
> all?) color filters removed from the M9's 18 MP CCD sensor. (Note there was
> never an AA or diffusion filter over the sensor on the Leica.)
>
> Putting aside the the usual questions of whether Leicas, in general, are
> worth the money, whether a grayscale digital camera is an improvement for
> those of us who do mostly B&W seems like an interesting question.
>
> There is certainly going to be some increase in sharpness, but I,
> personally, don't think I'd give up the advantages of variable color
> filtration and superior selection by color range that an RGB original image
> offers.
>
> In addition to the sharpness increase, there would also be a reduction in
> shadow or low light noise, at least in many circumstances. However, in
> working up my latest B&W landscapes, I found that the green channel, with
> contrast enhanced, could be used to achieve a lower noise sky than the red
> filtered channel by itself. So, would a single red filter over the B&W
> camera really provide a lower noise sky? Leica, you can send a test camera
> to me if you'd like! ;-)
>
> For those who are predominantly B&W shooters (aside from occasional color
> snapshots), which would you take if someone offered you a same-make, etc.
> B&W or color version of your favorite digital camera?
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>
>
>

-- 
Tina Manley, ASMP
www.tinamanley.com


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