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Just lately, Ricoh Imaging took us – and Leica – abruptly. Whereas Leica introduced the black-and-white-only M11 Monochrom, Ricoh launched the Pentax Okay-3 Mark III Monochrome hours earlier than, undercutting it as effectively with a worth some $7000 decrease.
Even Fujifilm would have been a extra doubtless candidate for a monochrome version of considered one of its current fashions, given the corporate’s proclivity for taking part in with coloration filters and movie simulations (they seem to be a main participant within the coloration filter house besides). However…a Pentax?
Pentax’s Okay-3 III Monochrome looks like an interesting digicam, however was it the incorrect alternative for a monochrome sensor? Possibly!
Just like the Leica, this new DSLR takes an current mannequin and swaps out the usual sensor for one with out a Bayer coloration filter, making it a very monochrome imaging expertise. As we have written about up to now, this may grant a digicam some distinct benefits, together with eliminating chroma (coloration) noise at excessive ISOs and permitting the sensor to choose up a few cease extra gentle. The drawback, after all, is that it performs to a reasonably area of interest viewers. To be trustworthy, Pentax wasn’t a model we thought more likely to make such a digicam.This transfer exhibits that Ricoh is aware of it is now a boutique digicam producer. The Pentax title might not have the clout of the Leica purple dot, however to picture historical past buffs, something with the Asahi Optical Firm’s heritage hooked up has a optimistic connotation. Entry to quite a lot of classic Okay-mount glass (together with some somewhat coveted Takumar-branded lenses) may give the Okay-3 III a Leica-esque retro enchantment.Pentax has at all times made high-quality DSLRs, with huge, vivid pentaprisms as an alternative of low cost mirrors – and so they’re persevering with to. Fairly quickly, should you just like the expertise of a single lens reflex, you will solely have one choice, simply as Leica is principally the one sport on the town for a pure rangefinder (sorry, Pixii). And now their very own devoted (and anybody else intrigued) can get what looks like an ideal APS-C DSLR for stills that shoots completely in monochrome, for 1 / 4 of the worth of an M11M.
In contrast to cosmetically-altered particular editions just like the GR IIIx Diary Version, a GR III Monochrome could be a very particular digicam.
But when Ricoh was going to make an oddball digicam for its fanbase, it missed one extremely essential alternative. They need to have made a Ricoh GR III Monochrome first. The GR has at all times been a digicam for picture nerds by picture nerds, from the very begin. Ricoh’s APS-C cameras have been phenomenal instruments which can be simple to shoot however can output spectacular ends in the appropriate fingers. Matching the street-smart GR III with a monochrome sensor would let customers shoot at the hours of darkness virtually, and ape the look that made photographers like Daido Moriyama well-known. Rugged DSLRs just like the Okay-3 III aren’t effectively suited to quick one-handed taking pictures, making the Monochrome model that rather more of a head-scratcher. It is price underscoring {that a} live-view-driven digicam just like the GR would in all probability be a greater general monochrome taking pictures expertise, since taking pictures with a DSLR’s optical viewfinder will not offer you an concept of what the completely different tones seem like within the ultimate picture, and DSLR reside view is…effectively…DSLR reside view, amongst different issues tougher to carry up in entrance of you want a cellphone.
The GR would in all probability be a greater general monochrome taking pictures expertise.
After which there’s the crop sensor concern. The actually nice Pentax lenses, whether or not they’re traditionally beloved or the newer classic FA Restricted line, have been made for full body. If you choose up a GR, you are getting a high-quality lens at both 28mm or 40mm equal, specifically designed for the digicam, no extra math required. I would like to shoot the unimaginable Pentax FA 31mm F1.8 Restricted on a monochrome physique, however not on the bizarre ~46mm focal size you’d get from the Okay-3 III.
So, what do you assume? Should you’re a GR shooter, do you’re feeling they focused the incorrect digicam line? Ought to Ricoh make a brand new version of the GR III with a monochrome sensor? Tell us within the feedback.
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