It is now a dedicated black and white digital camera.
How did I come to this?....
With a new DSLR on the horizon (maybe) and cuts in the prices of the current models, people tend to upgrade and older DSLR cameras are starting to get the cold shoulder and become shelf sitters. I have started carrying a smaller more flexible camera on a daily basis and find it meets most uses but still enjoy the well documented richer features of the K20. But it just hasn't seen much use lately.
On
'The Online Photographer' blog a couple of weeks ago regular poster Ctein wrote an intriguing article about seeing differently depending on the camera recording format (colour vs infra red) he was using, leading to quite different choices in lens length for similar scenes.
This notion lead me to re think about the way I would use the two cameras available to me. Having a daily choice of two cameras for color photography and casual image making, for small format printing or web, use lead to me habitually going for the small and convenient camera and the K20 has languished over the last six months along with the dozen or so Takumars on my shelves.
So I set about re-purposing the camera to try and become better at something that I had dabbled with but mostly for convenience had not committed to: to have a dedicated monochrome digital camera.
In the past I have thought, well I can just convert the color shots to B&W in post processing but this after thought approach has prevented me from 'thinking' in B&W while making the images. I have considered and even run a couple of B&W films through a film camera to try and develop that way of seeing but the learning curve is slower and more expensive as is usual with film.
Initially, turning to B&W in digital didn't suit the daily flow of work as it was inconvenient to set the camera back to the color settings for the daily use to which it was subjected, a role that has now been taken over by the new small format camera.
But now it is free to be used in this dedicated fashion and allow the development of my B&W vision.
Changes made are:
Leave in M program mode - use green button for more accurate metering at all apertures even with M42 lenses
Turn on histograms in review - for accurate exposure decisions
Leave in M focus mode - no longer do I have to worry about forgetting to turn back to A when installing the auto zooms
Turn off focus points in the view finder (Distracting when manually focusing)
Re-install the aftermarket split prism focusing screen (took it out as it was mostly useless when using auto focus on the DA zooms at smaller apertures)
Turn on B&W filter, and take images in RAW+Jpeg - I get the best of both worlds as I get what I see while shooting and I have the RAW version (unfiltered) to work on later if I wish, but all the reviews are in B&W.
Within the B&W mode turn up the contrast (a lot), the fine sharpening ( a little) and add the orange filter.
Allow the dynamic range to go to ISO6400 when Auto ISO is engaged as noise (starts at about ISO 800 on the K20) now becomes 'grain'
Install the K-M42 adapter ring and mostly just leave it there so I can use all the Takumars
For increased contrast add the yellow 49mm filters on the lenses
So now I have a digital Spotmatic or K1000, which with the battery grip installed can take hundreds of images and really get that eye in training.
Asahi ESII SMC 1.4 50mm
Last edited by Arjay Bee; 03-14-2014 at 07:19 PM.
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