Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

This a casual shot taken while I was wandering around without actually thinking about taking photographs. Setting aside the photographic quality of the image for a moment, I was amazed that it looks far better in black and white than it did when it was initially shot in colour.

Actually, when I first saw it, I blamed the kit (a Summicron M and an X-T5) for such a poor performance. The main subject is in focus and the aperture and shutter speed are correct. There are no issues with the white balance or tint. Nevertheless, I’m not particularly impressed by this photo.

By contrast, the black-and-white version is, please forgive the pun, a horse of a different colour. The performer naturally pops out from the screen, as demonstrated by how its left shoe in the foreground stands out from the three in the background.

This version of the original image has rehabilitated the photo kit of choice, still it raises a new set questions: is it possible that, when used with a modern 40 megapixel camera, a lens made in the early seventies may struggle with colours and is still usable in black and white? Or was the difference between the two versions simply down to chance or an error on the photographer’s part?

To further explore the matter, I plan to mount the Summicron on a Fujifilm X-T4 to see how its 24-megapixel sensor performs in colour and black and white. This will allow me to test the suspect that new sensors are less tolerant toward old lenses.

Youngsters don’t respect elders anymore, do they?

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