I didn’t understand the hype behind black-and-white-only cameras. Then, I tried one for the first time. The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome is a camera with an attitude!

I have a confession. I’ve been reviewing cameras for more than a dozen years, but I’ve never shot on a digital camera that shoots exclusively in black and white. That is, until I picked up the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome last week.

Camera sensors are actually colorblind. The sensor itself is only capable of seeing different intensities of light. But add a patterned color filter – one color to each pixel – and the camera can detect how much of a color is in a scene and, through a mix of those filters and software, create a colored image.

Monochrome digital cameras skip out on the colored filter array entirely, which means the camera can’t take color photos at all, just black and white. The idea behind monochrome-only cameras is that by eliminating the color sensor, more light reaches the sensor. More light is almost always a good thing in photography, and that added light is said to increase dynamic range and reduce noise, among other benefits.

I had mixed feelings going into my experience with the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome. I love black and white photography – in fact, black and white film is my favorite to load into my old Pentax K1000 film camera. But with film, I don’t need to buy an entirely different camera if I want to capture a photo in color; I can just swap out the film for a different type.

With those mixed feelings, when I rented the GR IV Monochrome from LensRentals, I added its color sibling, the GR IV HDF, as well. I took both cameras out to do some street photography.

Unable to actually see color, the GR IV Monochrome composes shots entirely in black and white as well. I found that, looking at the colorless screen, I was quite hooked on composing photos based on light and shadow rather than colorful scenery.

The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome is a camera with attitude – the photos felt much more dramatic. This was especially true when using the built-in red filter on the camera, which darkened the sky and created much moodier shots.

When I got home, I realized I had taken twice as many shots with the Monochrome as with the color camera. Using just what I could see from the screen, I was more drawn to the drama of black and white. This could be just because I wanted to get experience with a monochrome-only camera. Another likely culprit is that I tried the GR IV Monochrome out during the in-between phase of spring, where the snow has all melted, but nothing has started growing, so everything is a rather drab brown.

I still have some more shooting to do with the GR IV Monochrome before I share my final opinion. But first impression? I’m a bit more hooked on a camera that can’t shoot in color than I thought I would be. I can see myself getting this camera exclusively for documentary-style shots of my own family, as I think the timelessness of black-and-white and the small size feels especially appropriate for documentary-style shots.

My biggest hesitation? The budget-conscious shopper in me has a hard time paying more for a camera that can do less. The Ricoh GR IV HDF costs a few hundred dollars less. And, if I want black-and-white drama, I can use the in-camera color profiles to switch back and forth between color and black-and-white whenever I want, including seeing in black and white on the viewfinder.

After my first shoot with the GR IV Monochrome, I’m surprised I liked the colorless camera as much as I did – and I’m already eager to pick it up for another shoot.

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Stay tuned for a full review. In the meantime, browse the best compact cameras or the best cameras for black-and-white photography.