Good Sunday morning you war torn camera geeks! Well, anyone who knows me knows that I have been chasing that elusive “film-like” digital file for ages.

Perhaps it’s my love for b&w film, but when I started shooting digital the first thing I remember doing was trying to convert the images to black and white.

In the very early years, circa 1996-2003, most digital camera files looked horrible in b&w. They really did! Lots of blotchy noise that made it obvious it was from a digital camera.

Then in 2006, I got a Ricoh GR DIGITAL 8.1mp original and it rocked for filmic digital b&w. I’m still using the GR DIGITAL to this day.

I’ve never used the Leica Monochrom but I’ve looked at many, many files from that camera and I thought it was what I needed but it was always more than I wanted to spend on a digital camera.

Fast forward to 2020. I recently got an Olympus Pen F Digital specifically because of what I’ve read and seen of its b&w capabilities. The above photo was shot using the Pen F Digital and the 20mm f/1.7 Lumix G Asph lens. I’ve had this lens since 2009 and love its compactness and its sharpness.

And now I can verify that, yes, to me this camera in Monochrome 2 mode produces the closest I’ve seen to a black and white film image! Reminds me of Tri-X. There’s a nice balance of softness and sharpness in the film like tones.

It betters the GR Digital in that I can change lenses but I love the files from both these cameras equally. I could go on and on but today’s post is not meant to be a review but that may come at a later date. Happy Sunday good peeps!