A few years back, I shot with a Leica M 262 for about a year. During that time, I owned various lenses, enjoyed the heck out of the system, and eventually sold it all. I’m not opposed to picking up another M system camera and lenses, but I’m looking for a good deal (used) locally. If and when it presents itself, I’ll be ready.
Apart from the M system though, the Q series cameras have been quite popular. I’ve wanted one for years, but was always put off by the cost. Now that prices on the original Leica Q have dropped, it was time to buy one. See my article here for initial thoughts and discussion of some of the issues of the original camera. It got me wondering though, what about the Q2? From what I read the Q2 was better, but some people prefer the Q. Although, what about the Q2 Monochrom? I’ve always been intrigued by the Leica Monochrom cameras, but never owned one. Well, I decided to take the plunge.
I’m still very new to shooting black and white. I have only shot one or two rolls of black and white film and I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve converted color images to black and white, and have had mixed results, but sometimes it really fits the images. However, a dedicated black and white digital camera? Talk about expensive, bougie, pretentious, high-brow, and unnecessary! Be that as it may, I’m really enjoying it! One thing that I knew going into, was that when it comes to post processing, you have no effect over the color channels (i.e. filtering out reds or blues after the fact like when you edit color photos). Instead, you need to use color filters in front of your lens. Currently, I only own a B+W orange filter, but I’ve ordered a few more colors online (stay tuned).
Here’s some shots from my first weekend with the camera. One thing for sure – black and white can’t capture the magic of fall colors – at least I haven’t been able to yet.
Lastly, I’ve switched to Capture One (again) since they had a sale on version 21 that included a free upgrade to 22 when it’s released.
