If you are into B&W photography I suggest joining the #MonochromeAugust challenge: www.dearsusan.net/2022/08/05/1120-monochromeaugust-pixii-challenge/

As mentioned in the video I was at the time of recording a Pixii ambassador. If you follow this channel you know that the Pixii and I was pretty much a match made in heaven. Pick out all the best parts from all the cameras I have reviewed over the years and you can clearly see that the Pixii is by far the one that ticks the most boxes. So when they asked, how could I say no? Im super happy about the time I got to work with them. I received no financial compensation during the time. It was all about the fun of being BTS. They never said anything about what I can or can’t say about the Pixii or any other camera. But given that I actually am a real journalist, with a degree, I can no longer make ”reviews” about the Pixii. I will still say it as it is, just like before. Both positives and negatives. But I will be sure to point out that its not a ”review”. On the upside, I will be able to fill you in on the latest developments and get a glimpse into the company’s future. And best of all, add my own suggestions to the team at Pixii.

Like any real rangefinder, it’s beautiful, it’s desirable, it’s expensive, and it’s worth it. It’s also not for everyone, and that’s fine.

pixii obviously made a lot of good decisions. One of them was choosing you as an ambassador. Sometimes magic just happens. love your work! 👌❤️

You're my go to guy when I want to see a review of a camera, even though this is not a review, it still covers all the important features of the camera, thanks!!

Congratulations on being an ambassador for them. I hope to get my very own in the not too distant future.

Love to see my lens represented. I’ve shot at least 200 rolls of film on that thing, and I’m still in love. Not a lot of talk about 40mm, let alone the nokton classic 40mm, but I think it’s the perfect focal length, and that lens is so characterful.

That camera is definitely something to desire. The person behind the camera though...always the most important factor. I'll admit I mostly come here for your images Matthias. I learn from them.

They are doing a great job in innovation here ! Other manufacturer should really take a look at this ! Glad to see a French company innovate successfully. Also, happy to see you as their ambassador ! 👏 Ah, if I had the money, I will probably buy one, especially at that price (which is fair compared to the rather crazy expensive concurrency) but life isn't on my side these days.

To be honest, I'm struggling to see the difference with this, and converting a colour RAW to monochrome in a RAW editor. A true monochrome camera, I can understand. The removal of the Bayer (or other) colour filter results in higher sharpness. That advantage offsets the disadvantage of having baked in black and white only RAW. But, if you still have a physical bayer filter present, and are using an algorithm in camera to define a black and white RAW, that’s no different to the RAW editor doing this in post. I’m not entirely the workflow simplification is enough of a simplification, to justify the loss of flexibility. For me anyway. Other’s may find the workflow fun, and inspiring, and that’s what leads to great photography.

You mentioned in the intro video that larger lenses obstruct the pixii 2nd RF mechanism, do you know (approx.) from what diameter this becomes an issue?

Wow! I knew about Pixiis (Pixies? Pixiies?) but I never heard about this monochrome mode. Suddenly the camera is ten times more tempting! Thanks for this video!

Pixii must be a *very* special company to get Mattias as an ambassador. It's like when Richard Donner got Marlon Brando to be in Superman (1978), or Tim Burton got Jack Nicholson to be in Batman (1989).

I'm really happy that Pixii put up a page explaining at least a little how they do what they are doing, and congrats on being an Ambassador! This has me really considering one, and not to take the place of my M240, but to jump in have fun with a very unique camera and seemingly open-minded company that is thinking more like Sigma than Leica. :P Any chance we can get them to put up a couple sample Mono DNG's on the website to play with?

Good update. I have a question: the Leica M10 monochrome is very usable up to 50000 ISO. What is the max usable ISO ( take that to mean “good image quality“) on the Pixii in monochrome mode? Is it higher than the color mode?

Fascinating review. Could you comment on this vs the Sigma DPm monochrome techniques like Blue Channel?

Thank you for the video - very intriguing camera. Question: The viewfinder only goes down to 0.7m distance? What about M mount lenses with shorter close focus distances?

So you don't have the option to play with the color sliders (channels) in LR for more monochrome depth?

So even at high iso , the pictures are Gainless or the same grain as if it was shot in color?

This is a pretty tempting feature; thanks for the breakdown, Mattias! Also: don't Foveon sensors count as true monochrome cameras as well? Would be a good addition to the list of choices ;c)

Ach, Mattias, I have to be using the Pixii again. I had been off with other cameras and just got the X2D - very nice! - and see the Pixii and the X2D as a workable pair to carry without being burdened. Both companies have tuned their Sony sensors very well and I will be going mono on the PIxii for a while with the CV Nokton II. I'll try the Jupiter 8 and Amotal, too, of course. And, yes, I have an A2572 in the pipeline. I see that as a much-needed upgrade and a leveller. Pixii is going to be really kicking some butt now. ;o) Mono beckons.

Hi i watching all your video and vlogs i love it But i struggling!! i decided to bought one of them used camera Fujifilm x70 or LX 100( firs one) Photo mostly family vacation almost jpg format and witch one easily use menu Thank you for the answer Best regards Donnie Noire

Wow the Olympus BW jpeg looks stunning

Can i use other old lens on this camera which those not m-mount lens like nikon ai lens or minolta md lens. Can it focusing correctly?

I have a lot of GAS for one of these Pixiis! But for now I settled for an M9 at a good price (with repaired sensor) to get my first rangefinder experience. I love the Pixii's software updates and the ability for the user to adjust the rangefinder mechanism easy. I think this camera will be a classic. Maybe I can get one used one day.

okay, I haven't seen such feature to be advertised as a main sale point. I could make bw jpgs with my old canon 6d, in camera - what changed? are there some other kind of photosensitive pixels? what is the difference between converting color photo to bw on post?

I love the pixii Videos i hobe to see more in the Future. The monochrom is amazing. After your videos i purchased one by my selfe thank you for your Reviews.

The review is provocative, and that soundtrack is FUNKY!

I understand that this camera does not have a mechanical shutter. Is the sensor stacked? Do you get motion blur or lighting artifacts indoors or at a stadium? (I understand that this is not a camera for sports, but what if I need to take a picture in a location with flickering stadium lights?) ... also, how would you rate the camera's water and dust resistance? There is no mention of anything on their website... but if has few openings so I'm curious how it does in the rain?

Since you've used the Sigma Sd Quattro....how does the monochrome files of the Pixii compare to those of Sigma's? I don't know why....but nothing does it for me like the Sigma does.

I see a notification from Mattias, I click and like first. Never worry about if it is going to be good or not.

Howdy watched your old videos on sigma again. Miss gunpowder 😕 happy summer

You mentioned its different than just a bw profile (like acros in fuji x100v) but I’m not sure I understand hows that different.

Thanks for the video Mattias. The pixii is very tempting. I would love to try it out before buying but that seems impossible even if I live in Paris? (asking the ambassador) I don't see any information about this possibility. I want to feel it in my hands and look through the viewfinder to see if I like the magnification. Also concerned about using it with my Zeiss ZM 35mm 1.4 which is a bit fat. And another question if I may... Any plans of releasing a 40 megapixel Pixii 3?

I like the title. Almost makes me think like those color filters give you a bracketed exposure, being forced to use whatever combination or RGB they use internally. An EVF turned to monochrome is an awesome experience to shoot color photos too, as you can focus just light more easily. For me turning an image to b&w is often just a fix for messed up colors. I rarely do it up front or like the results.

Mattias, as you do have a voice in the camera world, how about you write to Contax and see if you could persuade them to make a digital Contax II to give full frame range finder users an alternative to Leica. What do you think…? in effect we could then have a in family camera to use our Voigtlander and Zeiss M glass on.

I was thinking about buying the Pixii camera but would like to have a camera that can satisfy my street photography needs, and also be able to do film scanning. Do you think this camera could handle film scanning with say a 50mm lens and a macro attachment?

Not a profectional photographer but do you think this camera can also work for those who (like me) cannot use post processing softwares? Can this camera do a good auto whitebalance set and export JPEGs directly and giving mostly good results for color and mono pictures, thank you :)

Hard to understand the shade being thrown at either Mattias and/or Pixii in the comments... He leads the video with a disclosure of his ambassador status, says not to take this as a review, and then proceeds to not give a review, but instead breakdown a feature that many people are interested in. Nowhere does he say that it's better than a Leica or that it's "worth" the money (that's pretty subjective and depends on what someone wants/values), just that he likes the monochrome mode better than converting RAW/shooting JPEG. Anyway, it's a straight-shooting video that gave me the info/perspective I was after.

Thanks for highlighting this unique camera, and others like it! A question about the framelines - are these based on the native full-frame M mount lenses, or it accounting for the APS-C crop factor? As in, when it shows 40mm framelines, is this for full frame? Making it a 60mm equivalent?

And how do they compare with the monochrome pics of the Nikon Df????

Thank you, great and informative as ever. Is the music Deodato ?🙏🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Hi What storage option do you have ,and how many images can you store. Thanks

The ONLY thing holding me back from one of these is the electronic shutter. I use flash quite a bit. Been exclusively shooting analog M’s for quite some time and as much as I love Leica, these new digitalis are just soooooooooo expensive. I too find that shooting raw files and then converting them just messes up my whole workflow, I hate it. Maybe I can learn to not want to use flash… who knows.

Many thanks, much appreciated. Cheers Neil

Thinking of attaching my 1964 Takumar via Adapter "M42 to Leica M" to such a Pixii. Do you think this should/could work? Cool video btw, very tempting 😀

Today cost me some bucks and saved me some bucks, I was about to buy a Canon R5C, because of the overheating problem of shooting 8k on my R5, a new firmware update has solved that problem. I also use my R with the Voigtlander 40 2.8 with the helicoid M to Rf adapter, shooting monochrome jpegs, It make a very low profile 46mp Ibis cam but is still big, Voila this review- answer to my prayers- small monochrome rangefinder- money on way to France.

Pourquoi on ne trouve pas une video en français

How about Pen F? It has a monochrome mode as well.

As a cheaper alternative to a dedicated monochrome camera I wonder why the other manufacturers haven’t already done this? Thanks for the explanation on your video

Great, something I was blissfully unaware of until a minute ago is going to consume me.

Congrats on the ambassadorship! The pixii is definitely an interesting camera.

How is the low light?

4th method, shoot raw on a dslr/hybrid in IR, then convert to B&W.

I might be convinced to sell my M typ 246 for the pixii. Maybe.

I think a lot of people miss the enhanced flexibility of converting a color RAW file to B&W and using the various color sliders to achieve what amounts to filter effects. I find this extremely useful and it far exceeds the flexibility of a file without color data. Consider a color RAW file that is then converted to B&W. The color data is retained. If I want to fine tune a blue sky background I can use luminance and saturation values in the color editor to do that and this is far superior to simply futzing with gray scale and much easier than using masks. I do not know if you can do this in Lightroom but you sure can in Capture One. So I much prefer to have a file that retains color data.

Coool

It works better than other brands.

only issue with this camera is the Leica lenses, they just too expensive lol. I love it!

My virtual penny jar is filling slowly but in time a Pixii will be mine. Maybe by the time I'm ready there'll be a FF Pixii mk.2....a guy can dream

And for filters, you can apply internally or you need external? External filters interrupt the flow. In post with a colour conversion they give you so many options. If you place the two types of monochrome images side by side in a gallery would you notice the difference? I guess not... But sometimes that's not the point. I'll stick with my XP3; I can see the world in Acros before I press the shutter, but thank you.

Remove the Bayer filter?

Fujifilm should do this for the Xpro4

I wonder how this mode reacts to color filters on the lens. Does it get fooled and produce a checkerboard, or does it realize there's a filter (possibly from the average R/G/B ratios). An interesting experiment to try.

Wouldn't a foveon x3/quattro sensor be a better solution to having a BW and color camera in one package? Since you don't Loose any color information, can shoot in raw, and get FULL resolution BW like from a Leica Monochrom. Plus when you remove the hot mirror you can do full spectrum/infrared. Granted the foveon cameras are not range finders and are much slower to use typically.

Curious what it means to be a brand ambassador (i.e., what perks do you get?)...and does this mean you will no longer review other brands/cameras? I hope not. Love your reviews, especially of the older cameras that everyone has moved on from...

I doubt anyone could tell the difference between a monochrome vs color converted to monochrome

👍👍👍

I'm a little confused as to how this monochrome mode is supposed to work. The sensor is physically a Bayer pattern sensor. You cannot overcome that hardware colour filter array because the light passes through those filters before capture. You can try to compensate with software but I don't see how this system is any different to converting a normal colour RAW in post with a good black and white profile. The page talks about "the inverse equation" but the process is the same as a any software conversation of a RAW file. Aside from the convenience of having the profile baked into the file preview. It's still a cool feature and the output is very nice but I can't help but feel the marketing is a little exaggerated. Unless I'm completely missing something... Haha

Isnt shooting colour raw files and then converting to monochrome closer to the experience of shooting b&w film? You see the photo in colour first but then get b&w photos

Dang. GAS levels have gone up significantly! That said, this raises an interesting proposition for firmware implementation of such a feature in older cameras? Maybe? Who knows. Interesting possibility though.

So this behaves as a true monochrome without actually being a monochrome ?

Fascinating stuff. Any filter array is going to leave each pixel with incomplete luminance information, and math is required to interpolate between them. Interpolation across the pixels to reconstruct color information is going to have a cost, typically half the pixels inform brightness, half inform color, and everything gets rounded out, with dangers where there are sharp edges between colors. Using a different algorithm that doesn’t prioritize color reconstruction can skip steps, perform fewer steps. Less round off error, so to speak. I’d guess that a lot of raw processing software goes through all the steps of rebuilding colors, even if you eventually discard it. You’re paying the cost (the monochrome DNGs seem nicer). There is a benefit-you get color information. You can use that for color images, or you can digitally apply virtual color filters, to adjust what is lint and dark. Red filters make the sky dark and dramatic, but reds and whites become hard to distinguish (I’ve noticed it shooting flowers). Being able to use color information to adjust the balance of a B&W image in post can be handy. And yet, there is probably something to be gained by skipping those steps. If you want that information, it costs you something in another part of the image. To that end, I bet it’d be possible to design a raw processor that did only monochrome images, that used the raw sensor data in a different way, with an algorithm with its own priorities.

I don't think this vid really helps understand how it works. and even reading the site, I'm not certain. From the website, it sounds like they are maybe calculating what the light "should" be, hitting any particular pixel. So, say it has a red filter over it, they are calculating the predicted loss in light from other frequencies, and adding that back in. So its like a simulated true monochrome? I'd be curious for you to show us the difference more directly, between just a converted colour RAW and this simulated true monochrome thing. It sounds interesting, and the pictures out the camera look incredible, either way.

There is another option with Fuji (and maybe some other) cameras. Shoot RAW only and still use some monochrome simulation. You will end up with RAW file but C1 will automatically apply same film simulation upon import. Magic.

Interesting approach. Seems like other cameras and raw processing software should be able to do the same.

Huh? You can easily convert raw to monochrome. 1:29

Sorry if this is wrong, but I think another option to shoot b&w would be to use Fujifilm with b&w film simulations and just shoot in RAW. At least that is what I do. When I export the RAW files, I see the film simulation applied to them. It is not as "special" as pixii or leica, but I think it is a step above the first option described in the video. Edit: Grammar

There is a 4th, and IMHO, the best choice for B&W, the Sigma Merill or Quattro series. The digital file contains all 3 primary colors, so that any b&w filter effect can be done. Since the 3 layers red blue green are in register, the microcontrast is superb, which is what you need to separate close shades of grey. The Leica Monochrom requires a traditional red, orange, yellow etc. filter to get the effect, since there is no color information. If you are using a red filter and focusing via the rangefinder, the focus will be considerably off as red focuses at a different distance from green and blue. No mention is made of how filter effects can be done with the Pixma. Is it via external filter or software? Since the b&w mode is a monochrome image with no color info, we are dealing with a sensor like the Leica monochrom in effect. If you shoot with the Pixma with no filter effect added, the images will not be dramatic. Any long time b&w photog knows that color filters are essential to manipulate tones in b&w. Finally, the sharpness of images from the Sigma series cameras are stunning, because of the unique design of the sensor. Sorry, this Pixma camera is a no go for me. Plus, it doesn’t have frame lines for short telephoto portrait lenses in the 85mm range. That is a glaring omission for the many portrait photographers.

The problem is that there isn’t just one black and white, many film options are possible, or using tinted filters. The Olympus OM-D will simulate these in-camera, albeit with JPEGs (you can still save as RAW+JPG). How could you achieve these different looks with the Pixii? It feels as though that decision has already been taken for you. Even a genuine colour filter attached to the camera may not result in the shading you wanted because of the pre-grading Pixii have baked in.

Highly rec

Uhh? So it is math only? What‘s new? Sounds like a marketing swindle to me?! I would suggest Sigma cameras. They make pysics: google for Foveon sensor.

I shoot RAW on my GM5, I just set the viewfinder to black and white

I wish it was MUCH more affordable.

That camera looked tempting but only the option of build in memory - at least for me a nope.

I just don't find it very sexy to look at. But I know some people do.

A dissenting theory on digi monochromes, if I may. Obviously, there's no right or wrong on this and everyone should do exactly what makes them happy. And of course beautiful imagery can come out of a monochrome camera, BUT... IF the desire is for an experience akin to shooting with BW film, then I find there to be something odd about desiring the flexibility of RAW. The film experience, as I see it, is that once your image is processed, it's essentially done, with the majority of decisions about how the image will look having been determined by film choice and any color filters used on the lens itself. The closest we have to this kind of experience is actually the JPGs created from in-camera looks. Once you decide you want the flexibility of RAW and then bring into LR, you're entering a very modern workflow that desires more options, not less (as the video illustrates, the photographer can decide whether they want a "high DR image" or a very contrasty one in post - these were decisions that used to be made before shooting). And besides offsetting the ease of BW shooting with more work, you are actually at a distinct disadvantage, from an options perspective, from those who convert from color. Color sliders in BW conversion allow us to do advanced versions of what our color filters used to do on our lenses - we can combine them, use them locally and apply gradations with them now. I've shot with the Leica Monochrom a number of times and I find the extra grays to actually be an issue. Most global post-processing adjustments on a monochrom image make the image either look too structured/plasticky or so overly contrasted as to question why one needed those grays to begin with. And in the end, I spend far more time on a digital Monochrom image to get it to look like my favorite film stocks than I do with a color conversion. Which seems like a special irony. Anyway, not trying to dis any cameras (I'm a Leica Akadmie Instructor), I just really love BW imagery and have a much different experience than many who swear by Monochromes. Hopefully, all this taken just as discussion. Very interested in others' experiences here!

interesting. will let the early adopters work out the problems.

it looks a leica for Hobbits.

3k :/

Wait, the camera is 3000€ xD No thanks !

They gotta work on the look of that thing. It looks like Kodak & Casio had a baby in the 80's

but the price???!!! LOL

advert :)

There is no magic or innovation in this. Well over a decade ago, I used to extract the data from the Red Channel of an astro converted Canon 1100d ( all filters removed but the Bayer Matrix Array or Microlensing ) to make true BW narrow band ( Hydrogen Alpha ) images of deep sky nebulae. Much like the so called ' high resolution ' mode of newer digital cameras with IBIS. This was invented by Nasa when they found out that the sensor of wide field camera of the Hubble Space Telescope was undersampling. The technique is called ' Drizzle '. That they can now implement these inside the camera is only the result of the increase in power of the onboard camera microcomputers. Those micro computers are the real image makers of the digital photography. Its a good feature to have, but hardly an innovation.

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