I had my Pentax modified to monochrome
A number of months ago I saw a post about a guy from Lithuania who started modifying Pentax camera sensors to monochrome. If you're not familiar with that process, it involves taking the sensor out of the camera and physically scraping/using chemicals to remove the color filter array off the top of the sensor. Doing this without breaking the sensor or camera is incredibly difficult, and indeed this person burned through many cameras. But then he started getting it to work, and did it again and again.
I chatted with him briefly about the process as part of some research I was doing on the topic of monochrome conversions. After more research and taking apart a broken camera I decided that it was way out of my league - just getting to the sensor of my camera required soldering and you don't want to see my arduino soldering skills. It's not pretty. So, I abandoned the idea of doing it myself and got back in contact with the guy to see if he would do one for me.
Well, over a month and many emails back and forth later and here it is. My monochrome modified Pentax K-5 II. Gaffer tape added for dramatic effect. I liked the look of the limited edition jet black K-3 III Pentax teased a week ago, and I thought the blackness was a cool way of signifying monochrome.
People are currently on my YT post trying to guess what it is 😀 I'm so cruel. Figured I'd let y'all know first.
Uploaded files:
Monochrome by Snappiness, on Flickr
Monochrome by Snappiness, on Flickr
Monochrome by Snappiness, on Flickr
The conversion process sounds really cool (and difficult!). There's a huge amount of craftsmanship in doing something so difficult and technical so well. That it's all concealed by the camera body, only to be revealed by the photographs thereafter, is kind of... I can't think of a better word than "romantic" right now so I'll go with that. 😅
And what great results, indeed! There's so much detail in the photos, it's really something. I don't know much about it, but you get more detail because the sensor isn't processing color channels, freeing up more pixels for detail, or something like that, right? Is that the main reason to do the conversion, or are there other reasons as well? Or am I just way off altogether? 😆
Also, yeah, the all-black K-5 is a cool look. 😎
Wow! I saw your post on Youtube and I was like, that's definitely a K-5. Didn't know you went through the monochrome conversion.
Now that's a cool camera!
I'm looking forward to your review!
Quote from JBP on April 1, 2022, 5:36 pmThe conversion process sounds really cool (and difficult!). There's a huge amount of craftsmanship in doing something so difficult and technical so well. That it's all concealed by the camera body, only to be revealed by the photographs thereafter, is kind of... I can't think of a better word than "romantic" right now so I'll go with that. 😅
And what great results, indeed! There's so much detail in the photos, it's really something. I don't know much about it, but you get more detail because the sensor isn't processing color channels, freeing up more pixels for detail, or something like that, right? Is that the main reason to do the conversion, or are there other reasons as well? Or am I just way off altogether? 😆
Also, yeah, the all-black K-5 is a cool look. 😎
Yeah that's the right idea. There are two main advantages, and a third when it comes to this K-5 II (but not most modern cameras). Because there's a physical CFA layer over the sensor, you lose some light. By removing it, you gain more luminance information which in turn usually helps with low light performance and overall amount of information.
The second has to do with how color filters help the sensor understand color. Because each pixel isn't getting full color information, the software then needs to go through a process called demosaicing which figures out the color of each pixel by doing some math between the information of the neighboring pixels. There are many different algorithms, and you can actually set your editor to try different ones out. Some do better than others at different things. In any case, all methods introduce some amount of loss of detail. You can skip that process on a monochrome converted camera and thus gain greater detail.
The third is specific to the K-5 II and older cameras that still had AA filters (most modern cameras do not anymore). In order to get at the sensor the AA filter must be removed, and in that process is destroyed. No AA filter will offer greater detail 🙂
I will be doing some side-by-sides with this camera and my K5iis. It should be a pretty good comparison since the K5iis comes standard with no AA filter.
Oh, I should add that I am going to share some really nerdy stuff about this camera and how much I love it, but every time you hear me talk about you should put this in the front of it: I don't really think it matters in any practical way. Does it look better side-by-side comparisons at 100%? Sure. Could you get the same look and fool someone with a non-converted camera. Yeah. Is it really cool? Heck ya it is! Now back to nerding out 😀
I’d love to see some actual scientific tests of a converted vs non-converted. I feel like I’ve never seen such a test but everyone mentions the benefits of the conversion. I do love the natural feel of the B&W coming out of the conversion! Are those SOOC or have you done a bit of post on them?
Quote from HeggenDazs on April 2, 2022, 5:54 pmI’d love to see some actual scientific tests of a converted vs non-converted. I feel like I’ve never seen such a test but everyone mentions the benefits of the conversion. I do love the natural feel of the B&W coming out of the conversion! Are those SOOC or have you done a bit of post on them?
Yeah I'm excited to see for myself too. I think I have a good idea what to expect though. Brighter, maybe slightly sharper, the advantage being especially at higher ISOs. This makes sense then why it's mostly a technology used in astrophotography and other scientific fields and less creatively 😉
Yes they have post production. The images come out fairly flat, so I up the whites and drop the blacks and that's it.
This is a very short read and the best quick explanation of monochrome sensors I've found on the internet - https://www.red.com/red-101/color-monochrome-camera-sensors
Here's a video doing side-by-sides with Leica monochrome - https://youtu.be/wLPG1bvfZ6o
I started doing some side-by-sides this evening but ran out of light. I'll probably set up an indoor test so I can keep consistent lighting.
Once again, a warning that I'm going to share a bunch of stuff and cool pictures with the camera but just want to make it clear that it's not worth it in any practical since - no one is going to notice lol
Do you mind me asking how much it would cost?
Quote from Lock5 on April 7, 2022, 7:19 amDo you mind me asking how much it would cost?
The person I bought it from was charging a few hundred euros for the conversion. The exchange rate was more favorable than it's been in a while, so that was nice for me.
Professional services can cost over a thousand depending on the camera. But then again, then you have more of a guarantee, and maybe they warranty it. The person I worked through was very professional about it, and I didn't have to pay unless the conversion was successful, and the provided camera would be replaced if broken (actually a story there, but I won't go into it now 😀 )
