{"id":160903,"date":"2023-04-28T11:42:55","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T10:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techweekmag.com\/?p=160903"},"modified":"2023-04-28T11:42:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T10:42:55","slug":"ricoh-installed-a-monochrome-sensor-in-the-wrong-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/photo\/ricoh-installed-a-monochrome-sensor-in-the-wrong-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricoh installed a monochrome sensor in the wrong camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently,\u00a0Ricoh Imaging<\/strong>\u00a0caught us\u2014and Leica\u2014by surprise.\u00a0While Leica was getting ready to unveil the\u00a0M11\u00a0black-and-white full-frame camera ,\u00a0Ricoh released its\u00a0<\/strong>Pentax K-3 Mark III<\/strong>\u00a0monochrome APS-C camera a few hours earlier\u00a0, which was about $7,000 cheaper than the German one.<\/p>\n

It’s understandable if Fujifilm would make a monochrome version of its compact camera, given its fondness for playing with color filters and film simulations.\u00a0But… Pentax?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Like Leica, this DSLR uses the existing Pentax K-3III model, but with the standard sensor replaced with a sensor without a Bayer color filter, resulting in a monochrome image.\u00a0As we wrote earlier, this can give the camera some distinct benefits, including the elimination of color noise at high ISOs and the ability to capture about one stop more light.\u00a0However, this camera is only of interest to a niche audience.\u00a0To be honest, we didn’t think that Pentax would decide to make such a camera.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPentax K-3III Monochrome<\/p>\n

This move shows that Ricoh knows they are now making extraordinary cameras.\u00a0The Pentax name may not have the same spellbinding effect as the Leica red dot, but for lovers of photography history, anything related to the legacy of Asahi Optical Company is also very important.\u00a0Access to a variety of old K-mount lenses (including some fairly rare Takumar brand lenses) can add to the K-3 III’s retro Leica appeal.<\/p>\n

Pentax has always made high quality SLRs with large pentaprisms instead of cheap mirrors – and they continue to do so today.\u00a0Pretty soon, if you like a DSLR, you’ll only have one option, just like Leica is basically the only true rangefinder manufacturer (sorry, forgot Pixii).\u00a0And now their consumers (and anyone else intrigued) can get what turns out to be an excellent APS-C SLR camera that shoots exclusively in monochrome for a quarter of the price of the Leica M11M.<\/p>\n

But if Ricoh was going to make an extraordinary camera for its fans, it missed out on one incredibly important opportunity.\u00a0They should have made the Ricoh GR III Monochrome first.\u00a0The GR has been a camera for photo geeks since the beginning.\u00a0Ricoh APS-C cameras have become phenomenal tools that are easy to shoot, but in the right hands can produce impressive results.\u00a0Combining an outdoor GR III with a monochrome sensor would allow users to shoot in near-darkness.\u00a0SLR cameras like the K-3 III are not very suitable for quick one-handed shooting, which makes the monochrome version more difficult to work with.\u00a0There’s a problem with the APS-C sensor: the truly great Pentax optics, whether they’re famous old lenses or the more recent vintage FA Limited line, were built for the full frame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\nGR would probably be better overall for monochrome shooting<\/i><\/p>\n

It’s worth emphasizing that a camera like the GR would probably be better overall for monochrome photography, since shooting with a DSLR’s optical viewfinder won’t give you an idea of \u200b\u200bhow the different tones look in the final image, since a real-time DSLR is … well… a DSLR in real time is, among other things, harder to hold in front of you like a phone or compact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently,\u00a0Ricoh Imaging\u00a0caught us\u2014and Leica\u2014by surprise.\u00a0While Leica was getting ready to unveil the\u00a0M11\u00a0black-and-white full-frame camera ,\u00a0Ricoh released its\u00a0Pentax K-3 Mark III\u00a0monochrome APS-C camera a few hours earlier\u00a0, which was about $7,000 cheaper than the German one. It’s understandable if Fujifilm would make a monochrome version of its compact camera, given its fondness for playing with color […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10404,"featured_media":160904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[651],"tags":[779],"class_list":{"0":"post-160903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-photo","8":"tag-news"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}