Last post I had to give some love to colour - I absolutely love working with colour when it isn’t working against me. However, my heart is always going to be with black and white. Like a lot of photographers, I started learning photography shooting black and white film exclusively. I first picked up a camera during the pandemic and proceeding to developing film at home for a few years. I think I went through a couple hundred rolls of film during this phase.
After a while I grew tired of being exposed to chemicals and didn’t trust any of my local labs to develop so I gradually switched over to digital. Nonetheless, I still had a love for black and white images and always pined over the idea of a monochrome sensor.
I’ve tried scraping off the CFA off sensors - fail
I’ve tried saving up for a Leica Monochrome - fail
I’ve tried building a monochrome camera - pass
The cost of designing, prototyping and building a monochrome camera may have far exceeded the cost of buying a Leica Monochrome but the satisfaction of saying you built a fully functional camera with professional level features cannot be fulfilled through buying a Leica (no shade though, I still want one).
So in addition to testing out the imx294 last week, I also brought along the imx492 monochrome to try out. Here are the images it produced on the same shoot:
Full Spectrum - No IR Cut Filter
Rokinon 35mm F1.5
Full Spectrum - No IR Cut Filter
Nikkor 55mm F3.5
IR Cut Filter Applied
Rokinon 35mm F1.5
Full Spectrum - No IR Cut Filter
Nikkor 55mm F3.5
And yes, I’m biased but I love the monochrome images more than the colour batch. Would love to get your thoughts in the comments!
Overall, I’m starting to get very excited (and a bit nervous) about launching the monochrome imx492. They are quite an investment but completely worth it in my opinion.
Supplies will be limited when I launch the Kickstarter so be sure to follow along below if you want to be notified first.
Cheers,
Malcolm
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