M246M or M10 (not Monochrome)

[Olaf_ZG]

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@Crowmagnon that first image 😍

[DadDadDaddyo]

Simply superb images above!

People keep talking about using the Monochrom to overcome their "temptation to shoot in color" and I just can't relate. 

Black and white was what I learned on from the start, loading my first Nikor reel successfully at the age of eight (the year was 1961, after countless screwed up attempts). We had a darkroom in the laundry room, or rather, there was a washer and dryer in the darkroom. I didn't really think about color because it was a near-impossibility to process it myself. I had an East German Exacta because it was approachable in terms of saving up as a little guy doing chores, etc. I had a great Tessar 50mm to go on it, was bulk loading Tri-X by my 10th birthday. Life was great! It eventually became possible to borrow my Dad's IIIc for really important things like the Jimi Hendrix concert I went to in 1968.

My Dad gave my Mom a Kodak Instamatic when they first came out: the 300, with the selenium cell metering. Those square Kodacolor pictures defined the term "snapshots" for me. Nothing wrong with them for their intended purpose. The subject's were squarely centered in the square frame; clearly that viewfinder wasn't for composing, it was for aiming. 

So the years went by. I used color in subsequent cameras for vacation shots, but always, always, I did my photographic "thinking" in black and white. 

When I got my first digital camera somewhere around 2000 I found the presence of color completely confounding. What?? How do I even deal with the presence of color in the frame?? It felt like an imposition, an unwelcome intrusion of an element completely out of my control. Obviously one had to factor it into composition, but how, when one has so little control over the color things were, or what people wore?

Thank goodness my wife is a painter! She calmed me down many a time in those days and walked me through handling color in a composition. 

So anyway, for me, the Monochrom series is about being freed, liberated even, from having to think about color, especially when I don't really care about color. Everything in the image can simply contribute to the composition on the basis of line, shade, texture, shape. Whew! That's way better!!

Color doesn't tempt me, except maybe when I shoot the inevitable yearly flower portraits at Morning Golden Hour in the Spring.

Black and white is a welcome relief!

Edited May 15, 2023 by DadDadDaddyo

[ramarren]

I bought an M10 Monochrom last year and have been delighted with it. To the point where I decided that I wanted an M10-R as well: two cameras to cover all B&W and color capture desires, same form factor and controls, using all the same batteries, accessories, etc.

Glad I did so. Although I still get an occasional pang of remorse from having sold my M-D 262 a few years back, the M10-M and M10-R together are just about anything I want and need at this point. They suit me well.

G