B&W Portrait Comparison — D3 vs. NEX-7 vs. M Monochrom

Dierk Topp, photography aficionado
By DIERK TOPP

Here’s a comparative portrait shooting with the Nikon D3, Sony NEX-7 and Leica M Monochrom. The photos were made in a studio with two soft boxes and black studio background, as you can see in the 1:1 crop’s reflections in the eye.

For a better analysis refer to the 1:1 crop images.

Leica M Monochrom was post-processed with Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex 2.

The performance of the cheep Sony 50mm F1.8 OSS for about $500 compared to the Leica APO-Summicron for about $3,800 (if you are lucky enough to get one) for this job is surprisingly good. I printed perfect A2 sized portraits.

Judge for yourself!

So what’s your favorite?

Nikon D3 with Micro-Nikkor 105mm F2.8 at f/8
Nikon D3 with Micro-Nikkor 105mm F2.8 at f/8
Nikon D3 1:1 crop
Nikon D3 1:1 crop

Sony NEX-7 with Sony 50mm F1.8 OSS at f/8
Sony NEX-7 with Sony 50mm F1.8 OSS at f/8
Sony NEX-7 1:1 crop
Sony NEX-7 1:1 crop

The Leica M Monochrom is manual focus. To get the eye 100% in focus is not that easy. The autofocus of the Sony NEX-7 seems to be perfect, see the crop above.

The original M Monochrom image uses Lightroom 4.2 default settings (see screenshot below). I only applied sharpening (41,0,21).

The image at first looks very flat and gray, but as everything is in RAW you can get it all out.

Leica M Monochrom with Leica APO-Summicron 75mm F2 at f/6.3 (original)
Leica M Monochrom with Leica APO-Summicron 75mm F2 at f/6.3 (original)
Leica M Monochrom (post-processed)
Leica M Monochrom (post-processed)
Leica M Monochrom 1:1 crop
Leica M Monochrom 1:1 crop

Lightroom screenshot (click to enlarge)
Lightroom screenshot (click to enlarge)
Nik Silver Efex Pro 3 screenshot (click to enlarge)
Nik Silver Efex Pro 3 screenshot (click to enlarge)

For more on Dierk Topp‘s work, especially black-and-white photography, go to his Flickr page.