Should you buy a monochrome-only camera?
Would you buy a monochrome-only camera? This is a question I know a lot of people are asking themselves and are really struggling to find the right answer.
It’s a big investment. It has severe limitations. It may mean you need to carry an additional camera around with you. Of course, Leica started all this off with the Monochrom-M back in 2012 and they followed it up with some massively capable cameras such as the M11 and Q2 Monochrom versions. Now Pentax has entered the fray with the full-frame K-3 Mark III Monochrome, which seems to be getting good reviews - and it costs a lot less. And we hear almost daily pleas from people for Fujifilm to make a mono sensor camera and I really hope they do as I think this could be an absolute sellout product. But we’ll see….
The Leica M11 Monochrom - it’s a thing of beauty but is it worth £8,300?
Buy why would you go down this route? You would have to be very significantly committed to black & white to justify the high cost, certainly in the case of the Leicas.
I think these cameras really come into their own in low light shooting, where the ISO performance can be significantly better. I've used the Q2 and the Q2 Monochrom side-by-side under normal lighting conditions and I can honestly say I couldn't see much difference between the images; I guess pixel peepers could, but I couldn't.
Would you invest in a Leica Q2 Monochrom for street photography?
So why would I limit myself? I do know people who are so committed to black & white and that's all they shoot so, in their case, I think these cameras would be a good idea. But for the rest of us - imagine we're out shooting, maybe even with a black & white project in mind, and we see a shot that would really only work in colour. Unless we have another camera with us, we're stumped - and that, for me, is the issue with these cameras. I know it's very tempting to dash and invest in a really specialised bit of kit but it's not a decision I'd be in a hurry to make - unless money was no object of course.
