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Sony A7RII conversion to monochrome recommendation

Aviv1887

Member
Hi all, I thinking of converting my A7RII to a monochrome. People who have experience with this in the US, which company would you recommend and why? Something to look out for or consider in this process? Thanks in advance for your responses.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I had one converted to Full Spectrum a few years back. It generated very nice monochrome SOOC with a UV/IR cut. But actually I felt they looked even more film-like with just a red filter and WB'd to a gray card. YMMV.
 

PeterA

Well-known member
I am amazed that other manufacturers haven't copied Leica's 'moncrom' idea and brought out their own versions - maybe it is too small a niche - but then again that can't be right because look at all the camera bodies out there from all manufacturers trying to offer into every niche possible...the PP required to get a decent B&W is low compared to the futzing around with colour files and the MP cost in colour to be able to provide the information required to match a monocrom chip is 30% more (minimum) - so no brainer in my book...

I'm think a Fuji XPro3- moncrom is something I'd be all over...if Sony did it or anyone else - same.

What am I missing?
 

JoelM

Well-known member
JMHO, but what I think you might be missing is that the other manufacturers are not Leica. Leica people will buy nearly anything Leica, I am guilty. Other users of other equipment might be more pragmatic and figure that they can do the work in PP. Many of us Leica people are coming from the film and manual focus era so a B&W camera makes sense. Just thinking out loud here.

Joel
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I think the real issue is juice for the squeeze, and the manufacturers know it.

In my own case, having the Sony converted to Full Spectrum, gave me firstly an IR capable camera -- and at the time I was interested in false color IR. I did it, and pretty quickly got over it. So then I decided to dedicate the cam to B&W. I did that for a while, but found that the net gains over converting to mono in post, or (surprise) just making careful jpeg mono settings and using jpegs sooc for my normal color DSLR were so small as to be irrelevant. At least for me... So in the end, I traded the converted sony for a second color DSLR body (I am a native Nikon shooter) that I set up for dedicated B&W jpeg capture. I found that workflow preferable to dealing with on-the-lens filters or extensive WB and post processing to achieve the results I wanted.

To be clear, there were minute detail gains to be had out of the converted camera. But to my eyes they were small, and probably not all that visible in even a very large print. There were some very subtle tonal improvements, but again, so small as to not really make much difference in on-screen or print output. End of the day, I realized *I* was chasing my own holy grail of emulating 2-1/4" Tri-X exposed at 320 out of my digicams, and none, not even the M10 mono, nor exceptional post-processing on a Phase achromat really got me to that look. And for me, the sooc jpeg on the newer 50 (ish) MP sensors is pretty darn good --not Tri-X at 320 good, but very pleasing in their own right-- so that's where I sit today... But that's me, and I respect others needs will be different.
 

JoelM

Well-known member
I think the real issue is juice for the squeeze, and the manufacturers know it.

In my own case, having the Sony converted to Full Spectrum, gave me firstly an IR capable camera -- and at the time I was interested in false color IR. I did it, and pretty quickly got over it. So then I decided to dedicate the cam to B&W. I did that for a while, but found that the net gains over converting to mono in post, or (surprise) just making careful jpeg mono settings and using jpegs sooc for my normal color DSLR were so small as to be irrelevant. At least for me... So in the end, I traded the converted sony for a second color DSLR body (I am a native Nikon shooter) that I set up for dedicated B&W jpeg capture. I found that workflow preferable to dealing with on-the-lens filters or extensive WB and post processing to achieve the results I wanted.

To be clear, there were minute detail gains to be had out of the converted camera. But to my eyes they were small, and probably not all that visible in even a very large print. There were some very subtle tonal improvements, but again, so small as to not really make much difference in on-screen or print output. End of the day, I realized *I* was chasing my own holy grail of emulating 2-1/4" Tri-X exposed at 320 out of my digicams, and none, not even the M10 mono, nor exceptional post-processing on a Phase achromat really got me to that look. And for me, the sooc jpeg on the newer 50 (ish) MP sensors is pretty darn good --not Tri-X at 320 good, but very pleasing in their own right-- so that's where I sit today... But that's me, and I respect others needs will be different.
Well put. To me, the advantage, as I've stated before, is that I get to think B&W only when with this camera. Some days I only take this camera so it's like having B&W film loaded.

Also, the B&W conversions are about $800. Cheap compared to a Leica, but as you said, the detail gains are minute.

Joel
 
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