bcapphoto Posted October 7, 2020 Share #1 Posted October 7, 2020 Advertisement (gone after registration) Curious - if all you owned was a Monochrom (any variety) - would you be satisfied? Would you feel ok not shooting colour, or at least not with an M-body? Thought it'd be an interesting discussion. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 7, 2020 Posted October 7, 2020 Hi bcapphoto, Take a look here If all you owned was an Mx Monochrom, would you be satisfied?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
pippy Posted October 7, 2020 Share #2 Posted October 7, 2020 (edited) Yes. Philip. EDIT : OK; to put some meat on the bones of my possibly slightly uninteresting monosyllabic answer... I have ended up owning an M-D Typ-262 (no screen) and an M Monochrom (no colour). If there had been an M-D Typ-262 Monochrom released then that would have been the absolute perfect M body for me without a doubt. Edited October 8, 2020 by pippy 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cboy Posted October 8, 2020 Share #3 Posted October 8, 2020 1 hour ago, bcapphoto said: Curious - if all you owned was a Monochrom (any variety) - would you be satisfied? Would you feel ok not shooting colour, or at least not with an M-body? Thought it'd be an interesting discussion. Is this a desert island thing? I doubt anyone would be satisfied with just BW camera unless one does colour on their phone. Its a matter of preference/ importance to colour & BW I personally use my camera for BW work and a separate FF camera for colour/ family/ personal. Horses for courses hahaha Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcapphoto Posted October 8, 2020 Author Share #4 Posted October 8, 2020 1 hour ago, cboy said: Is this a desert island thing? I doubt anyone would be satisfied with just BW camera unless one does colour on their phone. Its a matter of preference/ importance to colour & BW I personally use my camera for BW work and a separate FF camera for colour/ family/ personal. Horses for courses hahaha Ha - just a sort of ... fun conversation starter. I'm embarking into getting my first Leica digital and am really torn between having my first (and only - yet) Leica M digital body being an M240/262 or an M246 Monochrom. I have Fuji digital gear as well for my professional/personal work (XT3, X100V). So I was just trying to poke around and get some input - would you be happy with your only Leica digital body was a B&W only shooter? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandokan Posted October 8, 2020 Share #5 Posted October 8, 2020 I do not see in colour - and from what I see from uploaded photos, very few people produce photos that are based on colour, or where the colour enhances the photo. Therefore, yes. I could be happy with just a monochrome. Only problem ... the one day I have been out shooting with it, is the only day in my life that I started to see what colours would be missing and how the tonality would look Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Abrahams Posted October 8, 2020 Share #6 Posted October 8, 2020 4 hours ago, bcapphoto said: Curious - if all you owned was a Monochrom (any variety) - would you be satisfied? Would you feel ok not shooting colour, or at least not with an M-body? Thought it'd be an interesting discussion. No, I love my colour work, I would need to express the way I see colours in life especially landscapes, urban abstracts and other styles. Its actually working with the Monochrom that has helped my colour photography so they need to compliment each other. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreasG Posted October 8, 2020 Share #7 Posted October 8, 2020 Advertisement (gone after registration) Though I appreciate one or the other monochrome photo, for me, photography definitely means colour. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cboy Posted October 8, 2020 Share #8 Posted October 8, 2020 3 hours ago, bcapphoto said: Ha - just a sort of ... fun conversation starter. I'm embarking into getting my first Leica digital and am really torn between having my first (and only - yet) Leica M digital body being an M240/262 or an M246 Monochrom. I have Fuji digital gear as well for my professional/personal work (XT3, X100V). So I was just trying to poke around and get some input - would you be happy with your only Leica digital body was a B&W only shooter? Well since you have your fujis that you can use for your colour then you could use the m246 as a point of difference/ hobby work i guess. But you need to ask yourself if your passionate about BW to just dedicate yourself to that genre. Also you need to be aware of the limitation of m246 monochrome Personally i wouldn't mind m246 purely using the m246 as my only Leica since if have other FF bodies from a different system that i could use for colour. But unfortunately I cant afford to commit to an m246 yet hahaha Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Brown Posted October 8, 2020 Share #9 Posted October 8, 2020 The short answer: No. The long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.noctilux Posted October 8, 2020 Share #10 Posted October 8, 2020 I've never been there, 😁 Bcap, thanks for the question, thinking of it now for few seconds, I can answer yes I can only live with M246 as only M digital camera . Having said that I can not depart with my film M for using my stock of color/b&w films. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith (M) Posted October 8, 2020 Share #11 Posted October 8, 2020 In a way, the arrival of my M10M in early February has been very much to the detriment of my other cameras - M240, M7, R5 & H503CX have all been gathering dust since then, such are the seductive powers of the M10M. Having written that, it has not been to the total exclusion of colour - I often pop my D-Lux 7 in the bag and this year I took up close-up/macro photography of insects using my A6500 + 50mm Touit f2.8 (a lightweight combo). PS - I do have guilty feeling about the neglect of my film cameras! Next month I really will... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke_Miller Posted October 8, 2020 Share #12 Posted October 8, 2020 For my personal photography I could happily live with just my Monochroms. But a lot of my photography is for others who do not necessarily share my enthusiasm for monochrome images. For them my M240 and Nikons come into play. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marac Posted October 8, 2020 Share #13 Posted October 8, 2020 My M9M is my only M at this time. I have a Fuji X100F and a Panasonic S1R (both soon for sale) this is my colour option but hoping to get an M9 or 240 P I have a Mamiya ZD medium format digital that was converted to accept both IR block and IR only filter into the camera body, very nice machine but bloody heavy with lenses. If I could only take 1 camera with me at this time, it would be my M9M (fuji x100F) is very pocketable Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AceVentura1986 Posted October 9, 2020 Share #14 Posted October 9, 2020 Yeah, but I’d really like a lens on it too. LOL. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS Posted October 9, 2020 Share #15 Posted October 9, 2020 No- my camera bag normally has the M9 and M Monochrom packed side-by-side. I have pairs of matched lenses- so often shoot the same type lens on both, usually a Y48~O56 on the lens for the Monochrom. I would not choose one over the other, the same as shooting B&W and Color film- kept more than one camera loaded. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gobert Posted October 9, 2020 Share #16 Posted October 9, 2020 No because I am not a huge fan of monochrom nature photography (there are always exemptions). Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakronox Posted October 9, 2020 Share #17 Posted October 9, 2020 I could begrudgingly say that if forced to choose, I’d live with my M10 Monochrom and Summilux-M 35 FLE. It’s an amazing combo and my go to street setup. But man, I’ve taken some photos recently with my SL2 that brought me back to color, at least for a bit 🤓 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted October 11, 2020 Share #18 Posted October 11, 2020 I find this a very interesting question, thank you for asking it. My answer would be, "No", but not perhaps for the reason you might think. I have been using Leica kit for all my 35mm photography since the mid 1980s, starting with LTM, which is still my first love, then M3, M2 and since 1996 with an M6. With these most of my favourite images have been taken on black and white film, although some of which I am proud have been in colour. This includes home and travel photography. A few years ago I decided to get a digital camera, mainly because at the time I did not have darkroom facilities, and thought the convenience would be useful. I went to Red Dot to buy an M9M, bearing in mind my preference for monochrome, but chickened out and bought a normal M9 instead, on the assumption that I could always convert images. Now, although I had the M9 and could easily convert the files, I think there is just something more aesthetically pleasing about taking the photo in monochrome, even if the difference cannot be seen! So, a couple of years later believing that really I did want an M9M after all, I bought one. However, I have never got on with it! There is nothing wrong with the camera and I have seen many images taken using one which I really and genuinely admire, and this refers to the processing rather than the content. I think I just do not have the computer skills to process the files to obtain what I see in my mind's eye, and although I often get failures with film, I have often taken the M6 on trips in preference to either digital camera. In fact, I have never taken the M9M on a long trip and have just used it locally, such is my dissatisfaction. Now, if I could learn to to process the digital image to get what I want, the answer could well be Yes! I would be happy! I do not think I would miss colour photography. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted October 11, 2020 Share #19 Posted October 11, 2020 1 hour ago, Susie said: Now, if I could learn to to process the digital image to get what I want, the answer could well be Yes! I would be happy! I do not think I would miss colour photography. Just as you and others learned darkroom techniques, there are a variety of ways to become proficient processing and printing digitally. Depending on one’s learning preferences, there are good books, video tutorials, personal coaching and group workshops available. I had four b/w darkrooms over a 30+ year period, and then transitioned fully to digital in 2009, still with the same end goal of a fine print (and now occasionally in color, too). The tools had finally caught up with a non-computer nerd like me, and today they are even better. And papers/inks/printers are no longer limiting factors. As in the darkroom, the techniques are relatively easy to learn; it’s deciding when, where and to what degree to apply them. If you were successful with film in that regard, I’m confident you can become reasonably comfortable digitally. The first hurdle is recognizing that each film has a characteristic contrast curve, while digital requires user interpretation. Tone curve adjustments can be an important part of any digital processing workflow. Of course there’s a lot more involved, especially local adjustments, but it seems many here and elsewhere either don’t recognize its application, or else often have a far different rendering objective than I would have. Jeff 2 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom.w.bn Posted October 11, 2020 Share #20 Posted October 11, 2020 Could not live with a monochrom digital camera only. Especially photos at night in b/w are ridiculous for me because the night is so colourful. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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