Ask HN: Advice on camera for black and white only photography?

B&W could possibly give much better performance. A color camera like my Sony Alpha 7 ii has a Bayer Matrix of red, green and blue filter elements that reject maybe 2/3 of the light. If you removed the filter you would get more than a stop of extra light sensitivity. Now you have greater resolution because there are more identical black and white pixels. It's an expensive product because demand for it is small.

My Sony is an entry-level mirrorless. Image quality in mirrorless is equal to any SLR, the one thing you lack is the ground glass screen for focusing. The mirrorless camera eats batteries because it has to power the imaging system and screens when you are setting up your shot. The mirrorless is lighter, today they make very short and light lenses (especially primes!) that make a very lightweight kit. I picked this camera because I saw people weren't happy with the speed of the autofocus on entry-level Nikons and Canons.

Processing monochrome images from color RAW images will give better results than creating them from JPEG. When you do convert from color to B&W you have a choice of how to combine the color channels (emphasize red more than blue for instance) that can greatly improve your images.

I am a fan of the Ansel Adams Zone System in that value is the most important thing in an image, even if it is a color image.

Personally I take photos primarily to print them so I also would geek out about how to make good monochrome prints.

This site is completely reputable

https://www.dpreview.com/

and has forums where you get good answers.

Thanks for this, that gives me quite a few things to go off and start reading about.

Good to know dpreview.com is reputable too - I had a brief look there but was quite overwhelmed with the amount of info, will dig back in.

That's a great point about prints too, I hadn't considered that.

Orange or yellow filters.

They bring up brightness in skin tones, and add contrast to blue skies and green vegetation.

Orange and yellow filters are available at many secondhand stores for a few bucks each, in common lens diameters.

You can also just do the same effect in post-production if you shoot in colour digitally. I sincerely advise you to just shoot b&w film for b&w photos, but these days there are good software conversions - "film simulations", available in lots of different apps if you prefer to shoot digitally. It's a mature technology already, there aren't really any "bad options" you need to avoid.

You probably found the Leica q2 monochrome, which is the option that costs a fortune but is probably the best monochrome only camera on the market right now. If you're just getting back into photography after awhile though, then I wouldn't suggest it to start :)

Based on your description, a Fuji would probably fit well (it can either be fiddly or fully automatic, and has great modes not just for b/w, but other film simulations as well).

The Fuji x100v or Ricoh GRiii are great little cameras with good b/w modes.

If you'd like to change lenses, then the Fuji E4 would be good, or the Fuji XT4 if you want more options.

Spend more time looking at what lenses you might want to get to achieve the look you're after, and choose a compatible body from that. Lenses make the biggest difference, and will always outlive the bodies.

Mirrorless is the way of the future, but SLR systems are often cheaper for the same image quality. For example the selection F mount lenses for full frame cameras is particularly impressive. And many of them are cheap new and cheaper used as pros switch to mirrorless.

You can start out with a colour camera and change your raw files to black and white, and then later when you're looking into upgrading, do a monochrome conversion. One advantage with Fujifilm (and possibly other brands, would be interesting to hear which ones) is that you can set it to show the image in black and white in the viewfinder, but record the full raw file on the card.

I'll add that I just watched Nigel Danson demonstrate the black and white finder with full raw on Nikon, so it's definitely not just Fujifilm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ZaD_Tp9lY

Don't fall into the trap of needing the "best specs" for the job.

Camera's from the 2010s were producing great images in color and black and white.

Go to a store that sells cameras (B&H Photo, Target, Walmart, Best Buy etc) and find a camera that you like and would be happy to carry around with you.

> FWIW part of the appeal of b&w to me is its limitations, rather than just an effect to be applied to color photos I'd taken.

I get this, but most digital cameras will allow you to set the mode to B&W so the preview on the screen is black and white, however the color information is still there.

More than taking the picture, to get to what you may envision in your head will take post processing. It's not just a matter of removing color of the image.

FWIW I like Nikon...their Z line of mirrorless cameras are great devices with tons of modern features built in.

I too love B&W, and have shot substantially in digital.

If you are going for the Adams aesthetic, you want dynamic range and resolution.

If you want street photography style, anything on the market will do.

If it's really a B&W first purchase, check the camera has a B&W mode so your previews immediately show in B&W, and be triple-sure areas with maximum tones (blown whites, lost tone in pure black) is easily visible.

Because tones are usually pushed in classic B&W, the ability to preview against custom tone adjustment profiles but also store RAW would be ideal. Every camera has dual JPG/RAW since ~2010, but the profiles may be substantially different in software both in terms of config and UX.

That's a great point, I hadn't even thought about B&W previews, but definitely something I'll keep an eye out for.

I would start with the gear you already have, in monochrome mode. With that out of the way, get a range of filters to put in front of it to give you options that can't be done in post processing like pushing the sky dark, etc.

There may be some very narrow band filters that prove quite empowering.

Also consider that if you have a narrowband filter in front of an existing Bayer filter, you've essentially got an HDR sensor, as the sensitivity of the RGB pixels will have a fixed ratio at that wavelength. You could thus trade a bit of spatial resolution for dynamic range.

> FWIW part of the appeal of b&w to me is its limitations.

If limitation is appealing to you and you are okay with a fixed 35mm get yourself a Fuji X100. You will have a lot of fun.

Will take a look at that too, thanks. I'm a hopeless fiddler/tweaker, so the fewer choices I get to make, and the more I can just concentrate on composition etc. the better.

The Fuji camera firmware also has some B&W film simulation modes.

Ricoh GR is another good option, I have the old GRD III released in 2009 and I still love it and use it. Lens has almost no distorsion, probably software corrected? The ergonomics and speed are stellar. Has several in camera B&W modes. Now they also have a 40mm equivalent version, the GR IIIx.

Fujifilm - as you mention others have said. The standard Acros film simulation is incredible right out of the box. It even varies grain depending on exposure etc. to mimic real film. On top of that, there are tons of film simulation "recipes" that can tailer the b&w look to mimic specific film stocks. They are not overly expensive and you could also buy a used one from a few years back.

Most Canon camera's (and I presume the other big brands) have a 'picture style' option which you can set to monochrome which provides instant feedback on how a photo looks in B&W. The camera still takes a color RAW file so you can even experiment with color filters later.

I don't see any mention of it so here it goes: try the minimalist approach, a pinhole camera. It's interesting, super low tech, cheap and it will set all kinds of limitations which in turn should give you something to chew on artistically. Can't go wrong imo.

Ricoh GR3! Its compact nature meant for me that I actually took it with me to photograph things :)

Is there a way to get a monochrome sensor?

I suspect there is no market for it(astronomy perhaps) so the price would be high.

If you were willing to do surgery on an expensive piece of electronics could the home gamer remove the bayer filter?

I've seen one company that does this conversion and sells converter camera (https://maxmax.com/), but would probably like to keep things simple to start with.