What Camera Shoots the Best Black and White Photography?

Paul looks into what the best Monochrome Camera is. Colour sensor vs Monochrome sensor vs Black and White Film
Street Photography, and Street Portrait photography is shown for comparison
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[RosannaPorteous]

colorizethis AI fixes this. Best Monochrome Camera for Photography.

[jocko_]

My Nikon FM and a roll of Tri-X. Life is good.

[cdrkennon]

Pentax K3 III monochrome can be an excellent choice. No bayer filter so excellent tonal scale, sharpness. Very economical with ability to accept all Pentax K lenses and M42 with inexpensive adapter.

[tonyadamis]

B&W can be very special. My gateway into B&W was the Fuji film simulations, with which I could generate Acros images along with color such as Classic Chrome. Then I saw Paul's channel and it was only a matter of time before I had my own Q2M. It is true that you can get very good B&W images while shooting color if you can see that shot in your image. But under certain conditions the Q2M spins out an image that has some sort of smoothness of gradation to the shades that live between black and white and you have something very special. Finally, the trap of this channel is that Paul is such a gifted photographer that it is easy to fool yourself into thinking that the B&W is the thing, rather than his artistry.

[lorenschwiderski]

Your description and analysts of these cameras is spot on. I have gone from mainly colour, to using digital cameras setup to shoot JPG ( B&W ) + RAW for each rendering. The ability to view as a monochrome and a color image I find to be a win-win, when looking at a color and asking one's self, is the color adding to the shot taken or is it distracting from the story or general quality, at which time I choose the monochrome. There is no way to predict, in most cases, what will be presented to you on the street, and I would hate to pass-up a shot which is all about the colours, and/or can be sorted out in my mind later on as to which means the most. I am shooting for subject matter first, and secondary the art within a second or two, and thus would rather have the ability to then process fully what happened once home. Street portraits, and the art of light and shadow -- building structures, is a different matter. There is the time to setup, and it is a fine-tuned art photo, almost at origin. This may favor the monochrome camera or film. In the end, however, it is all about the photography as the ultimate defining difference. I really enjoyed your video, Thank you, Loren Schwiderski - street photography

[mrca]

My mamiya rb67 produces a negative FIVE times the size of 35 mm and gives actual film grain and I can chose grain and contrast by selecting different film stocks. For ease of use, my nikon f6, a film camera sold til october 2020 has accurate matrix metering and aperture priority, auto focus with back button focusing, 5 fps film advance, and 1/8000 sec shutter speed. It does ttl with my sb900 speed light. It's a digital camera with film transport and is the same layout as my d850. My b&w shots are the real deal, not some faked look. I finished a roll kodak tmax 400 on my mamiya 645 and am loading it into the tank for developing. I love the smell of fixer in the morning. It smells like... photography.

[TheWooloomoolloo]

So essentially a monochrome sensor camera gives you the look and range you can also get in the Lightness channel of the Lab colour space?

[artsilva]

Just as b&w film did, a monochrome sensor makes you slow down and pre compose your image. That means not only protecting your highlights but also using color filters for the effect you want in the scene that you would get by adjusting color channels on a color sensor in the b&w conversion.
There is a learning curve to good pure monochrome photography that takes practice to master.

[akirsch]

When I started photographing seriously, I was a 95% color shooter. Using a DSLR, it was always easy to check if the black-and-white image was better, but black-and-white was often not on purpose when I took the picture. This changed a lot when I was a bit tired of digital photography and did a lot of my images on film. I shoot many black-and-white films because the development is much easier at home. That ignited my deep love for black-and-white photography. Black-and-white was no longer just an option in Photoshop. That forced me to think much more before the shoot and in black-and-white images. That helped me develop as a photographer. Sometimes, limited options are the way to happiness. Technically, you can do great black-and-white photography with almost every digital camera nowadays. But I see myself searching for a used Leica M10 Monochrome all the time 😂

[fergusfitzgerald]

Very interesting ! Use my iPhone to generate some nice mono images - love film as well - Portra is my favourite !
Digital mono can be wonderful but doesn't look as nice as film - that's just me of course !
Nice images.

[WilliamWallaceRoss]

Fujifilm Camera's with their built in Film Recipes, Acros, Classic Chrome and others you can get from Fuji X Weekly work great.

[michaelhorton]

What camera takes the best B/W? Easy any quality film camera. Loaded with black and white film. Any film made by Kodak or Illford preferreble. You can't match it.

[fintonmainz]

If I could afford a camera with a dedicated black and white sensor I'd get one but I'd miss the ability to selectively expose different colours when editing.

[pence]

I just find when I look at the vast majority of B&W photos I ask myself 'would that look better in colour?' and 99% of the time my answer is no... as the quote by Ted Grant goes "When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”.

[jasongold]

I cannot afford any Leica Digital Monochrom or Color version! My M3(new in 1967) amd M6TTL (2000) is my total. Sure Film costs each frame! A pittance compared to New Leica Gear ! They keep making new models, every few years! I prefer to bleed slowly! The older CCD sensor does great BW! I have a Minolta, Canon and Olympus! Simply no high ISO! 400! I never needed super ISO! I use HP5 because it dries totally flat than that crap Tri-X.Nice video..

[rogerwalton]

The on-line course is excellent - highly recommended.

[Jake-gli]

I enjoyed this. You are skilled as i have said before but you are also lucky enough to have a young lady that actually enjoys being photographed. To all the newbies to photography there is really no point in trying to work with someone who's only contribution to the process is saying...hurry up and take it... that really is soul destroying . Best wishes Jake Everyman.

[jamesmlodynia]

When I was photographing weddings one of the things that I did was to select a handful of photos and along with a color file make a B&W file. The first three weddings i photographed were for people that I worked with before I photographed my first wedding, i photographed the Memorial day event at the Correctional facility I worked at, i did that for three years before the first wedding, it gave me a chance to work in a fast paced environment where I had to position myself to get the shot without being a distraction, shooting a formal event is not easy but being able to do an event that lasts a few hours while working with a two camera setup gave me more of the skills I needed for my first wedding, it also helped that I worked with this group of people for years before I shot the first event. On the flip side it put extra pressure on me to get it right. One of my first B&W conversion is my favorite. The first wedding the bride came to the venue in a very old Buick sedan, the gentleman driving the car was also dressed for the part wearing a vest with a flat top hat as if out a 50'S Hollywood movie. The bride exited the car in an old school wedding dress wearing a pair of big sunglasses, i was standing just outside the venue entrance door that had a large awning that extended several feet from the building with a runner carpet the length of the awning/ canopy. This was my first wedding but one that many of the others could not match, the funny part was the very last wedding i photographed also was very memorable in so many ways. My last memorable event was a photo shoot for a local motorcycle group that also included a Halloween theme, renewal of wedding vows.

[DanMars]

Your film shots blow your others away. It’s not even close.

[ernestthomas]

I've been taking monochrome images primarily since the height of the pandemic just to show we can make it through this, now to me it shows we are adjusting to an alter life