A miller Posted January 26, 2014 Share #1 Posted January 26, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) A lot of forumites have provided feedback on their experiences with their Monochrome, which on balance have been mostly very positive. However, it is hard to tell what people are using it for. I am exploring the possibility of purchasing this camera purely for my own personal use. I am not a professional and do not seek to profit from any of my images. Assuming you are not offended - or bored - by this question, I'd be interested to know whether you purchased your MM primarily for use in your photography business or whether you have purchased for your own personal use as a hobby or otherwise non-profit purposes. Please feel free to ignore this thread if you deem it irrelevant to anything. I totally understand. I just had the burning curiosity and, as the old adage goes, there usually ain't no harm in asking! Thanks in advance for those who do respond! Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 26, 2014 Posted January 26, 2014 Hi A miller, Take a look here Do you own your Monochrome for business or pleasure (or both :) ). I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
250swb Posted January 26, 2014 Share #2 Posted January 26, 2014 I'm using it for my own photography, given I'm not a full time professional anymore. Plenty of examples on my Flickr site linked below. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcraf Posted January 26, 2014 Share #3 Posted January 26, 2014 Adam I am a keen amateur and so bought my MM for hobby use. Aside from my first one dying after 4 days (with immediate replacement by my dealer), I love it. My M240 is getting a little less love, nice though it is........ Some MM stuff on my site below. Cheers John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guido Posted January 26, 2014 Share #4 Posted January 26, 2014 I'm using the Monochrome for pleasure. However, the only way I can rationalize its purchase is by making myself believe that I'll eventually turn pleasure into business one day Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgc Posted January 26, 2014 Share #5 Posted January 26, 2014 Adam, and without going off on a tangent, can I ask what you think your B+Ws are missing or how they would improve with an MM ? I have been considering an MM for a while now, but I have remained 'loyal' to my M240. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alligator Posted January 26, 2014 Share #6 Posted January 26, 2014 Purely pleasure. I'm just having fun with this camera, and happy not to be making any money doing it. That would increase the pressure, which I don't want. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A miller Posted January 26, 2014 Author Share #7 Posted January 26, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) [Adam, and without going off on a tangent, can I ask what you think your B+Ws are missing or how they would improve with an MM ? I have been considering an MM for a while now, but I have remained 'loyal' to my M240. David] Hi David - A tangent, indeed, but a great and relevant question which I'm happy to address. I frankly love film and all of the imperfections that are associated with it. I like the classic and vintage look that it renders, especially when a shot is nailed. The majority of my photographs one way or another end being B&W, even when I am shooting with my M9 or Kodak portra. Having said this, film is SO EXHAUSTING to process, digitize and edit!! It's not so much the lack of instant gratification, but rather the drain on my personal time. So the main reason why I am considering an MM as a primary tool over my film cameras (while of course still shooting film often) for B&W shots is to cut down on processing time. Then there is the question of why I would either sell my M9 or keep it and use it only for color. This for me is the big question. I have taken many very satisfying shots B&W shots with my M9. Usually with Silver Efex I can bring out sufficient tonality, as least with respect to my street shots (and not speaking to finer art photographs, which I don't do much of). Having said this, from what I've experienced so far, the MM is a whole different ball game in terms of ISO. It really isn't even an issue. With a good Leica lens one can shoot nearly anywhere and anytime. This is huge. Also, so far I've found the DR to be clearly more rich. This IMHO is a big "nice to have" for a street photographer. Provided the composition of a shot is there, the degree of perfection of sharpness and tonality aren't going to make or break the picture (see, e.g., any of the hundreds of our prominent street photographers from the last century). So freedom from the constraints of the M9's ISO limitations and (to some extent) materially expanded DR and tonality are the main reasons why I am considering adding an MM and not relying exclusively on my M9 for digital. But the steep cost (which I can't write-off b/c I"m not in the business) makes the analysis extremely difficult for me. I'm happy to discuss this further. And I would also love to hear others' feedback with regard to the initial subject of this thread. All the best, Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay B Posted January 27, 2014 Share #8 Posted January 27, 2014 100% for my own and others pleasure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sm23221 Posted January 27, 2014 Share #9 Posted January 27, 2014 100% for hobby purposes only and I never could rationalize the purchase; but I would never give it up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecar Posted January 27, 2014 Share #10 Posted January 27, 2014 Pleasure. An expensive one, but well worth it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcg Posted January 27, 2014 Share #11 Posted January 27, 2014 Personal use. When the other half saw it she started to go ape. I told her that I had bought it secondhand - and "look, it is very old technology. It doesn't even do colour". That was it. I didn't get any more trouble. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
2wk Posted January 27, 2014 Share #12 Posted January 27, 2014 I use mine for both. I shoot fashion, editorial, even the odd event. I love this camera. I try to use it as much as I can work, but obviously some clients demand color. I have had a few clients excited to go BW because of my excitement for the MM. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 27, 2014 Share #13 Posted January 27, 2014 I recon most of those who use it professionally won't be found on this forum Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmldds Posted January 27, 2014 Share #14 Posted January 27, 2014 For pleasure:). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldhrads Posted January 27, 2014 Share #15 Posted January 27, 2014 Pleasure, Pleasure, Pleasure, But I did have the M9P out this weekend:D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJH Posted January 27, 2014 Share #16 Posted January 27, 2014 Having said this, film is SO EXHAUSTING to process, digitize and edit!! It's not so much the lack of instant gratification, but rather the drain on my personal time. So the main reason why I am considering an MM as a primary tool over my film cameras (while of course still shooting film often) for B&W shots is to cut down on processing time. Adam have you considered getting a trustworthy lab you can work with to do all that stuff? I have only just started back with film, 2 rolls of B&W and 2 of colour all processed and scanned by a local lab who does C41, e6 and B&W in ID11. Everyone seems to do their own scanning but whilst it would save me some money my time is more important I feel. I find I am spending much less time in photoshop fiddling with the labs scans than I was processing DNGs from my M8. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Lord Posted January 27, 2014 Share #17 Posted January 27, 2014 Personal use - pleasure, and documenting my family and friends. I got paid for a photo only once, in 1990, when I got a poll tax riot shot from behind the rioters' lines on the front page of a national newspaper. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A miller Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share #18 Posted January 27, 2014 Adam have you considered getting a trustworthy lab you can work with to do all that stuff? I have only just started back with film, 2 rolls of B&W and 2 of colour all processed and scanned by a local lab who does C41, e6 and B&W in ID11. Everyone seems to do their own scanning but whilst it would save me some money my time is more important I feel. I find I am spending much less time in photoshop fiddling with the labs scans than I was processing DNGs from my M8. Great question. I have a trustworthy lab that does processing @ $7 per roll for color film. This is no biggie. They even deliver the negatives to my door for $7 per order. Service is reasonably prompt. It's the scanning and PP that are the biggest drains. I use a nikon coolscan 9000 and get 4000 dpi which results in fairly large fully editable files. The files come flatter than a dng files (particualrly the B&W files), which means more PP work. The scans that the labs in NYC offer for cheap amount to tiny low res files. It would simply be prohitively expensive to pay to scan the negatives at 4000 dpi or larger. Then there are the adjustments that are necessary in the scanning workflow that is very personal, such as using the 64bit channel to filter out dust and scratches (which I use but only when ther is a meaningful amount of dust), opening the shadows a bit, and WB adjustments. A lab would probably put a lot of this on autopilot. There is a very rewarding intangible aspect of doing all of this to turn an orange negative into a large, fully loaded digitallly processed file. But it's a lot of work to make it one's primary not-for-profit workflow! [NB: My volume is an average of couple of rolls a week.] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leopold Green Posted January 27, 2014 Share #19 Posted January 27, 2014 pleasure! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkP Posted January 27, 2014 Share #20 Posted January 27, 2014 Personal use/pleasure Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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