I had my Pentax modified to monochrome
Some more shots. I did finally shoot a side-by-side against my K-5 IIs, my K-3 III and this K-5 II monochrome. The luminance difference is very noticeable, over a stop, about 1 1/3 stops. The detail difference isn't very noticeable. The high ISO performance is very noticeable. Guess who won? 😉
But then again, that's pixel peeping. Zoomed out all the way can you really tell? Well, I don't think so.
Lightroom Export-3.jpg by Snappiness, on Flickr
Lightroom Export-4.jpg by Snappiness, on Flickr
Lightroom Export-5.jpg by Snappiness, on Flickr
Lightroom Export.jpg by Snappiness, on Flickr
I see I guessed right on the YouTube Community post! So is it worth the mod? There's a K7 in my local marketplace listings for $125. It's tempting to try out the monochrome conversion with it, if the user who does it on Pentax Forums would be cool with it.
An additional thought, how would an Orange filter or an IR filter affect final image output?
Quote from SpruceBruce on April 14, 2022, 8:24 pmI see I guessed right on the YouTube Community post! So is it worth the mod? There's a K7 in my local marketplace listings for $125. It's tempting to try out the monochrome conversion with it, if the user who does it on Pentax Forums would be cool with it.
An additional thought, how would an Orange filter or an IR filter affect final image output?
Yes, you did!
"Worth it" is difficult to define here, lol. My short answers are there are some actual measurable benefits, along with some immeasurable/subjective ones. But when it comes to the broader scheme of image quality, I think the things that make people think "wow, great image" can be done with a regular color camera and post processing to black and white. So, worth it for technical applications, nerdiness, artistic applications (but once again not necessarily unique to it). I am plenty happy with it, but it was definitely a luxury/fun purchase.
I have enjoyed shooting it indoors at higher ISO with the major light gathering advantage. I think especially if you converted a newer camera, knew you only liked black and white, and were only shooting high ISO then yes very practical.
That turned into a long answer. Okay, real short answer: no, unless you want it anyway. 🙂
I haven't tried color filters yet, but my understanding is you get the same effects you would have with b+w film, but you start to lose some of light gathering benefits of the conversion. Which makes sense, right, because you are getting the advantage because each pixel now gets unfiltered light, and now you are filtering all light into the camera. People that have monochrome converted cameras definitely do that, though.
This guy takes some nice street photos and shoots film and a monochrome Leica. Here does filters sometimes: https://youtu.be/wwI5QjEf_II
Omg that's so cool!!
I thought the ticket to a monochrome sensor was going to be thousands, no matter what.
Nota benes about the "need" for it aside… Do you think you'll keep using it? Does it make you want to pick it up?
Quote from ahoyhere on April 24, 2022, 5:26 amOmg that's so cool!!
I thought the ticket to a monochrome sensor was going to be thousands, no matter what.
Nota benes about the "need" for it aside… Do you think you'll keep using it? Does it make you want to pick it up?
Yes, definitely. But I've realized I'm not a very good black and white shooter. I find my eyes finding color contrasts and harmonies, but not finding shapes, compositions, or interesting other contrasts as easily. Its actually prompted a better study of these things. Of course you don't need a monochrome converted camera to do that :p
What have you done? 😉
Today I saw your video about that conversion, read this thread and now I like to have a converted K-5II or K-5...
E.
What an awesome conversion. I'm a huge B&W fan so having a dedicated camera body is be a great idea. Sure beats forking out for a LEICA M10 Monochrom!
Just watched your video- excellent! You said in April that you aren’t a good b&w shooter but I think that is clearly no longer true! The shots in your video are so good! (I commented as much on YT).
I think there is a smoothness and a richness to your shots that is not as easily duplicated in software conversion from color files. Especially in the skin or leaves of plants, and deep shadow.
I do a LOT of color to b&w editing and that’s my take. It really looks better to my eyes and it’s NOT subtle.
Btw, on the technical nerdy side… my husband is deep into astro and his dedicated astro cam is a 46mp monochrome m43 unit with a filter turret for the different wavelengths and gasses. It is not what we call A Camera, being basically a cylinder half the size of a coke can, no controls much less a viewfinder or screen, all for remote tethering to a computer only.
He and I were just discussing how we might set it up to try it for landscapes to see what happens — filter turret means easy trichrome! — but it’s going to be annoying and fiddly to do so.
Quote from ahoyhere on July 20, 2022, 6:03 amJust watched your video- excellent! You said in April that you aren’t a good b&w shooter but I think that is clearly no longer true! The shots in your video are so good! (I commented as much on YT).
I think there is a smoothness and a richness to your shots that is not as easily duplicated in software conversion from color files. Especially in the skin or leaves of plants, and deep shadow.
I do a LOT of color to b&w editing and that’s my take. It really looks better to my eyes and it’s NOT subtle.
Btw, on the technical nerdy side… my husband is deep into astro and his dedicated astro cam is a 46mp monochrome m43 unit with a filter turret for the different wavelengths and gasses. It is not what we call A Camera, being basically a cylinder half the size of a coke can, no controls much less a viewfinder or screen, all for remote tethering to a computer only.
He and I were just discussing how we might set it up to try it for landscapes to see what happens — filter turret means easy trichrome! — but it’s going to be annoying and fiddly to do so.
I've never heard of one of those astro cams being used for anything other than astro -- that would be interesting to see the results! I don't know anything about that speciality astrophotography stuff except that when you Google how to monochrome convert your camera almost all the research and help on the matter was done by astrophotographers 😀
Thanks for the compliments, and I definitely still feel like I have a ton to learn with black and white shots. But it's a fun way to learn. Doing side-by-sides with my non-converted K-5iis were interesting because the histogram looked so different, even beyond the exposure difference. Just the spread of light. The monochrome converted camera images are a lot flatter out of camera, so I just play with the tone curve and really like how they end up. I haven't done any landscape with it yet but I really, really want to. I think that would be interesting to judge the file differences too.
Quote from EckyH on July 19, 2022, 5:41 pmWhat have you done?
Today I saw your video about that conversion, read this thread and now I like to have a converted K-5II or K-5...
E.
Yeah, I apologize for that 😉 It was definitely the most expensive purchase I've made on something with the least amount of practicality 😀 I want to share it with the world, but also want to make sure people know they can get great results out of a non-converted camera. Don't want to make people unhappy with the great gear they have now.
