There's no question in my mind that if your art depends on the very best black and white images in the universe you'll probably want to end up with a Leica M10 or M11 monochrom (only) camera. Every serious black and white photographer I know who has picked one up and really shot with it is totally addicted to the quality of the black and white file. Just more or less permanently addicted. But Leica has made monochrome versions of their rangefinder M cameras all the way back to the time of the M9. Their first monochrome camera, built around the M9 body configuration, was equipped with an 18 megapixel CCD sensor. People who used them raved about them but there were a few operational issues. No live view. A loud shutter mechanism with a re-cocking step that also made noise. A less reliable rangefinder calibration system, and a skimpy battery.
Leica fixed all the issues with the next generation of M cameras; the M240. A couple years after the launch of the M240 they came out with a CMOS sensored Monochrome version complete with a quieter shutter, a more reliable rangefinder calibration, a bigger buffer, a faster processor and 24 megapixels instead of 18. Sapphire glass on the LCD. Oh, and live view plus video... It was named the M 246 M.
Since Michael Johnston embarked on making a stock fp camera into a black and white only camera I've been on again, off again interested in whether or not a "monochrome only" camera would really deliver an additional measure of quality and unique-eosity to my own black and white photography. Then my friend at ATMTX bought one of the previous model M monochromes and seems to be absolutely delighted with the results he's getting from that predecessor of the M246. He seems to be driven to use it about 80% of the time even though he has lots of other significantly great cameras from which to choose.
So, this morning I found myself doing what gear addicted photographers seem to do on a weekly basis; I opened an email from CameraWest and followed the link to their latest "drop" of used gear. A weekly listing of interesting cameras and lenses that have come into their San Francisco stores. And there it was: A Leica M246 M. All black. No red dot. No logo on the top of the camera. A stealthy camera capable of, supposedly, delivering black and white (only) files elevated from the basic, converted color files from other similar cameras. The price was low for this camera. It was rated as a "9" by the store --- and they are usually pretty accurate --- at least as I've experienced.
I put it into my shopping cart. I checked my "budget" and while I can afford the camera I hesitated. Did I really want to spend $3500 just to experiment with a black and white only camera that's at least ten years old? A camera for which extra batteries are as rare as unicorn teeth? Did I need a fourth M240 variant to keep other cameras company? Am I that driven to focus like a collimated beam only on monochrome photography? Was there a reason (yes, and very practical) for why we would carry two cameras in the film days? One with black and white film and the other with color film --- because different applications demand color while others can skate by in black and white. Because sometimes your eye is attracted to color contrasts in a scene while at other times reducing a scene to its graphic parts works better for some people's aesthetic or taste.
I took a break to go and ask my spouse for guidance. She said to do whatever makes me happy. The issue of money is off the table. I was just looking for logic about the whole idea of yet another camera for yet another snipe hunt in photographic practice.... She said, "buy it if you really want to try it. You never really lose money on Leicas if you decide it's not for you and you want to sell it..." That was no help...
I sat at my desk and pondered. Then I realized that I have a buying pattern. At the outset I try to find a solution that's completely affordable and meets the basic criteria I'm looking for. The M246 meets that standard. The next step is hitting the limits of the new purchase and beginning the rationalization leading to an upgrade. In this instance, probably to an M10 M. Newer sensor. Better viewfinder. Third generation renovations. So I would upgrade at some point to the M10 M and be happy until I read a series of reviews from photographers smitten with the M11 M. Which I would probably buy new, dropping $10K. But if I started with the M11 M instead of working my way up the catalog "ladder" of past versions I'd save nearly the price of the M11 M. That is, if you factor in the purchase of the two previous cameras.
I took a break. Made an espresso. And absent-mindedly looked through a folder of images I'd taken in Chicago with a small sensor, color mostly, compact Leica DLUX 8. And I came across these images which I had taken in color and then converted in Lightroom to black and white. Not my finest camera. Not the biggest sensor. The least expensive Leica in the inventory. And I realized that I was happy with the files. Not kinda happy. Or mostly happy. Just happy.
I emptied out the shopping cart. Already started forgetting the M246. Realized that it was someone else's dream to own a black and white only camera - not mine. Instead I bought two more of my favorite $20 camera straps from B&H. Then B. and I went out to our favorite restaurant and had a delightful lunch.
If you can make totally fun and good black and white images from a small point and shoot camera with an older m4:3 format 17 megapixel sensor why would I ever have a need for yet another pricy rangefinder camera?
And that's how I ended up ordering the red snapper with capers and bok choy for lunch. Delicious.
The desire for something new hits from time to time but I'm more ambivalent to it now.
After all, it seems more fun to take up the challenge of using
a less prodigious camera to take good monochrome images with.
The friction of trying harder makes it more fun...
If I hit the edge of the performance envelope in the small camera, or the other cameras around the office,
I might reconsider.
Some thoughts from black and white camera shooter, Paul Reid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX80tK6F1qk
13 comments:
You made the right decision, Kirk. And I suspect your photo kit will be quite a bit lighter a year from now. I know mine will be. I’m being honest with myself these days. Most new gear isn’t going to give me better results. Cameras have been more than good enough for my purposes for a number of years now. And while I’m being careful as I review my camera gear (because, at this point, once something is gone then it’s gone for good), I’m focusing on keeping only my favorite pieces and what I know I will actually use on a consistent basis. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel the pangs of passion occasionally. I’ve more than once thought about selling off all my L-mount gear and picking up an M3 43. I’m not sure I’m ready to do that yet. But inexpensive lenses from TTartisans and Viltrox? Keep ‘em coming!
I went down the monochrome Leica route. I bought the M10M new. Got frustrated with it and traded it for an M11, then traded it for the M11M. I had each camera for a year. Mostly my own conversions from the M12 are my favourites. As I prefer lighter skin tones. I tried putting an orange filter on the monochrome versions but I really could only just see the differences. I did like having the electronic shutter speeds in the 11 series too.
The M11M excelled in contrasty monochromes. Where you are working side or rim lighting…. I found I had to do way more processing work on the files in straighter portraits.
One day the M11M froze in a shoot with a client. I had my other camera in the car. The walk out and back to get it was enough to give up on the camera. Whilst it was my fault for not carrying my back up camera, I really expected a camera worth that much money to work more consistently.
Oh, I also shoot square and I’d so love Leica to embrace that in many of there cameras, and not leave it to just the SL series.
I do miss carrying that Leica around. People recognising it…. And yes I do miss the files in low light situations….
I will probably grab the richo GR 4 monochrome when it comes out to play with. I have th GR3 X which I love to have in my pocket on art gallery visits.
"If you can make totally fun and good black and white images from a small point and shoot camera with an older m4:3 format 17 megapixel sensor why would I ever have a need for yet another pricy rangefinder camera?"
Maybe because you're a "gear addicted photographer?"
I don't shoot B&W, possibly because I'm no good at it. Even when I close my eyes tight, I see a kind of purplish brown. However, I do have a smallish collection of excellent photos, and they are *all* B&W. I can't explain that.
I went the Mike Johnston route with a LUMIX S5 conversion and love the results. But the SLS-2 that I bought used, thanks to you , comes so close that I would say you made the right choice. I too am a square shooter so the M series has no appeal to me. I love your recent black and white work, irregardless of camera.
My understanding is that the rationale for a dedicated monochrome camera is that it helps you understand what you see in the viewfinder without the “distraction” of color, and therefore makes it easier to visualize how the final black-and-white image will appear.
Maybe for some photographers. I’ve never had difficulty imagining how a subject would look in black-and-white. I sometimes decide when I’m shooting that a particular image will work better without color, but more often I prefer to preserve the option of making that decision in post.
If I really thought it would help to look through a monochrome viewfinder, all my cameras offer that option as long as I configure them to process rendered files (perhaps along with saving the raw RGB sensor data). If you don’t need to alter color attributes such as white balance, the adjustments available in programs such as Lightroom provide plenty of control to achieve the final appearance you want.
I've had the same quandary about buying the Pentax monochrome camera. Like you, I have determined that my converted B&Ws are plenty good enough. Plus I still shoot occasionally with Tri-X. (Lower resolution but with the ineffable film charm.) There, I've just saved myself $4,000 between the Pentax camera and the lens I was looking at.
Kirk
If you want friction in your photography, and something new, get a Sigma BF, and 3 extra batteries. My experience is a lot of “friction”, but a unique and enjoyable experience; once it is set up to your liking. I’m using mine with the Leica 50mm f2 Summicron DR (V1) on a 7Artisans adapter, and the images can really show why the lens has the reputation it has. Being L-mount is also a plus.
Though, it may not be as much friction as provided by your Sigma fp cameras.
PaulB
I think a monochrome-only camera makes sense only if one is completely dedicated to monochrome photography. You take plenty of color photographs — buying such a camera makes relatively-little sense. I think that your decision to not purchase one at this time makes (Dare I say it?) a lot of sense. You recently mused getting rid of all but two cameras in order to declutter. Getting an extra body would work against that potential goal.
I too have been musing about whether to purchase a new camera body or just stick with what I have. I have decided to stick with what I have, for now. To be honest, I am not sure that getting a new body will result in better photos. So, why bother?
It's interesting to read posts in gear threads like this one. Many people express a deep-seated mentality of frugality. There's no need to own a separate B&W-only body, we have enough equipment already. Behind that is a notion that we shouldn't use/buy/own more than we need, and some express the desire to pair down, as if that sacrifice is good for the soul. I don't think the sentiment lines up with reality much. We live in an extremely affluent culture and we squander money left and right daily (I am using the royal "we", these are obviously general statements). I am a very minor player in this game and I'd be embarrassed to list all the Olympus bodies I've owned since the E-1 as the digitization of photography evolved. Each one of those used body purchases was preceded by weeks and months of upgrade angst that look like a waste of time in hindsight. There may not be a rational reason to buy a B&W-only body for 99% of us, but some might just want to do so for the hell of it. In a culture immersed in consumer excess, the odd extra camera body is truly small potatoes.
I have been consistently surprised over the last decade or so of blogging about photography how frightened people are of spending money on gear. No fears about big, expensive SUVs, fancy vacations, endless skiing, pampering their adult children, etc. but when it comes to adding a relatively cheap new camera body to their collection; even one that would make their style of photography more successful they instead brag about how they are making a crappy camera from 2001 serve as their primary camera in 2025. And if they are willing to entertain a new purchase there is generally months of hand-wringing and "research" involved. They seem proud of saving a couple hundred or thousand bucks over the course of twenty five years for bragging right as to who can be the cheapest. Most frugal. I guess some don't get the memo that eventually we all drop dead. To drop dead is bad enough but to drop dead holding a shitty camera in one's hands when one also has millions and millions of dollars of net worth at hand is just..... sad. But everyone's priorities are different... sadly. Thanks for pointing this out.
Kirk: I have been consistently surprised over the last decade or so of blogging about photography how frightened people are of spending money on gear.
Fortunately, there are the intrepid those among us who, resisting the tide of cellphone snaps, are snapping up every new camera that piques our interest. We few, we happy few, we band of shooters, thus ensure the survival of the camera industry. We may mostly be old men, but B&H, Adorama, and Amazon will long remember with advantages what gear we bought each day: then shall our names, familiar in their sites as household words, be in their flowing profits freshly remember’d.
Bravo! Cue: applause!!!
I got a little addicted to Leica M cameras, I brought the M11 on the first day it was available and love using it. I then for some reason decided that I want a film Leica and ended up with a Leica MA but after a while I found that I was mainly using black and white film in it. For so reason I became obsessed with making B&W images that I ended up getting the M11M so now I have three Leica M cameras and I love each for different reasons. However the camera that I wear most days when I am out is just about always the Leica M11M as it never lets me down, it is always able to work in what ever light I am in and I just love the images that I get out of it. Film is harder to work as it needs okay light, and colour now is something that I have to think more about. I realised that the photobooks in my collection where mostly featuring B&W imagery so I have decided to concentrate on that for my art work and it is being a good journey of discovery. Will I upgrade to a M12M when it comes out who knows I might just keep using what I have for the forseeable future.
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