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B&W sensor only?-- Merged--


sblitz

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Well, that's a little crazy. No Bayer filter. Sharper? Greater resolution (4x18?)

 

I wonder if it has an IR sensor cover. Will one use conventional B&W contrast filters with it?

 

Or is it just another WAG rumor.

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Me, I'm a color guy. Especially with digital. I do some B&W conversion, but I'm not about to work with a B&W-only camera.

 

But a monochrome sensor does offer the advantage of no color filters (which do reduce the available light, as dave_d mentions, by close to two stops). And for Leica, it does away with the headache of "red edge" and "cyan drift" and such. Uncoded or especially troublesome wide-angles like the 21mm Super-Angulons or some of the C/V wides would gain a new lease on life, for those who do only do B&W. It would indeed also require less IR filtering (but not zero - see LL review below), but would still need some kind of protective glass cover over the silicon.

 

Kodak made monochrome versions of a couple of their SLRs over the past two decades, including their very first DCS-100.

 

Kodak DCS 100

Kodak 760m Review

 

They were niche products and still didn't sell very well.

 

But Leica's "niche" is niches. A "special edition" by which they can suck an extra $5000 out of buyers is right up their alley.

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Me, I'm a color guy. Especially with digital. I do some B&W conversion, but I'm not about to work with a B&W-only camera.

 

But a monochrome sensor does offer the advantage of no color filters (which do reduce the available light, as dave_d mentions, by close to two stops). And for Leica, it does away with the headache of "red edge" and "cyan drift" and such. Uncoded or especially troublesome wide-angles like the 21mm Super-Angulons or some of the C/V wides would gain a new lease on life, for those who do only do B&W. It would indeed also require less IR filtering (but not zero - see LL review below), but would still need some kind of protective glass cover over the silicon.

 

Kodak made monochrome versions of a couple of their SLRs over the past two decades, including their very first DCS-100.

 

Kodak DCS 100

Kodak 760m Review

 

They were niche products and still didn't sell very well.

 

But Leica's "niche" is niches. A "special edition" by which they can suck an extra $5000 out of buyers is right up their alley.

 

I can see all that. Plus getting rid of that pesky protruding LCD that needs sapphire armouring would make some sense. And probably more Leica-shots end up b&w than Canonikons and such. So maybe. There's a niche there, esp as a second camera for M9-owners

 

Maybe not my niche, but if I think about it long enough, maybe, just maybe... oh heck. Hard not to want it. Maybe best it doesn't happen...

 

Jim

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This is what Leica Rumors has just put up on their site. Apparently May 12th is the date according to this Rumor site. Why would you want an expensive camera that cannot take color photographs? Let's hear it.

 

I wouldn't.

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Yes. Most definetely.

 

+1

 

… without thinking twice … or long, that is

 

My M8.2 is currently a B&W only M.

My M9 is probably a 99% B&W M,

 

While my film M cameras are all B&W only.

 

 

In fact, the little film, I find myself buying in color languishes in the fridge, reaching expiration, while I can't re stock on B&W as fast, as I shoot.

 

A B&W only digital M, that meters and shoots to ISO6400, as the film M's before it used to do is a no brainer and instant buy for me.

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