its a fantastic camera ! max martinucci has and uses one and makes copper plate photogravures using it. saw some of hisI've got to give them this, Leica has some gonads!
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._20050_m10_monochrom_digital_rangefinder.html
That explains the crazy pixel count on that camera. I guess I never noticed these since I typically don't look at cameras that cost more than my car!Technically, all digital camera are B&W cameras. They use filters over the sensors in an array so that each sensor picks up only the blue, red, or green wavelengths. The camera's software knows which filter is located over which pixel, and reconstructs the color image from this. Often, they'll use a bayer array, where each pixel represented on a computer screen is made from four pixels on the sensor 2 green, one red, and one blue.
So the advantage of using a B&W only digital camera is you can get 4x's as many pixels out of the same sensor, since you're not having to dedicate 4 sensor pixels to each computer screen pixel. You can use a 1:1 ratio. This also allows you to use larger sensor pixels which will often have more sensitivity. And since you don't have the colored filters over each pixel, they can gather more light.
So if B&W photography is your only concern, it makes sense to buy a B&W digital camera. Though for most of us, it's probably not worth the expense, seeing as how easy it is to turn a color digital camera into a black and white image.
Actually not. The “crazy pixel count” is the normal version, is comparable to color sensor performance. What happens is that internally, then get each of its (4) cells dedicated to color is now just dedicated to B/w. It’s not a numbers thing, rather it’s seen in the quality. I’ve used their first one w 18mp, and it surely feels like a lot lot more. And with increases in light sensitivity, allows for shooting higher up the ISO scale. This one must be amazing, although for a king’s ransom.That explains the crazy pixel count on that camera. I guess I never noticed these since I typically don't look at cameras that cost more than my car!
It's good to see companies do things like this.
Does it just save you the step of gray scaling the image in PS?
No. It saves someone who's after a black and white image the step of wasting three quarters of a sensor's resolution by using every pixel for luminance instead of filtering them for color. See post #4.Does it just save you the step of gray scaling the image in PS?
There are no regular color sensors, they do not exist.Monochromatic sensors have a slight advantage of producing a cleaner base image - Regular colour sensors sample the light differently as they can only look at part of each pixel for each colour, so even if you're making a grey scale image from them the camera needs to do more approximations to account for how it samples. They also typically end up with smaller sample points as you need some space between the sub-pixel sensor sites.
Monochromatic sensors allow the sensor site to use the area of the whole pixel, including the small space that was taken up between the colour sensor's sub-pixels.
They can also be made slightly less noisy than a comparable colour sensor with less effort, as each pixel only needs to sample a single channel rather than sampling 3-4 [rgb/rggb sub-pixel layout]
We still see monochromatic sensors in scientific gear in part for some of these reasons. They can still produce full colour images, but need to snap a photo for each colour channel... So not the best for a sports camera.
No. It saves someone who's after a black and white image the step of wasting three quarters of a sensor's resolution by using every pixel for luminance instead of filtering them for color. See post #4.
Thus, to obtain the same black and white resolution (after grey scale conversion) from a color digital camera as the Monochrom M's 40.9 megapixel sensor does, one would need to start with a 163.6 megapixel color sensor.
I don't know of any commercially available photographic cameras like that, ignoring military applications. There are the Fuji GFX-100 and Phase One IQ3, to be sure, but they're "only" around 100 megapixels.
Of course, if Leica's 40.9 megapixels aren't "enough" for someone, they could always go for a Phase One XF IQ3 and more than double the count:
Price, however, would dwarf the cost of a Monochrom 10. Also, even a V850 scan of an 8x10 negative has more megapixels.
There are no regular color sensors, they do not exist.
What is that factor? Please explain the math.Not quite. The Bayer CFA is 1/4 R, 1/4 B and 1/2 G, so the math is a bit more complicated than that and the effective factor will be less than 4...
OK, now we're getting there....The latest IQ4 series Bayer and monochrome backs are 150MP.
You need to read up on digital sensor inner workings, none are color, filters make them soRight, all those colour photos from digital cameras are clearly just a figment of my imagination, and I totally haven't done development work with them in my career...
You need to read up on digital sensor inner workings, none are color, filters make them so
What is that factor? Please explain the math.
OK, now we're getting there.What are their prices?
Not quite. The Bayer CFA is 1/4 R, 1/4 B and 1/2 G, so the math is a bit more complicated than that and the effective factor will be less than 4...
What is that factor? Please explain the math...
OK, can you offer a WAG? On average, greater than 2? Than 3?The factor will be scene-dependent, even in an idealized model. But sorry, I'm not even going to try to explain the details. This isn't the place to try to teach all you would need to know about sampling theory to sort this out - even assuming I were competent to do that, which I'm not...
...OK, now we're getting there.What are their prices?
Without a camera. Makes the Monochrom 10 seem inexpensive....The usual $40-50K.
OK, can you offer a WAG? On average, greater than 2? Than 3?
Perhaps the Foveon sensor can be considered as color sensor.
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