B/W DSLR

Hi Everyone,


after travelling before Easter (without my camera) I got some virus or so that made me feel pretty awful for much longer than normal, which is why I have been pretty absent here, too, but...


...at some point this crazy old idea about a DSLR with a B/W only sensor kept jumping around in my head, and I wanted to see what others though about it.


Except for the loss of colour, I can see huge advantages in removing the Bayer filter; it should be 1-2 stops more sensitive, which would be huge. And it should produce sharper pictures due to not needing the demosaic. If you then also scrap the AA filter it'd be even sharper, and I would think that the AA filter wouldn't be as necessary anyhow (because I could imagine that without the demosaic, and the resulting higher effective resolution, Moire wouldn't be such a big problem as to require this artificial blurring).


Dreaming on, if the 5D3 were B/W only I'd get it together with a colour-capable 600D. Who else would buy a B/W only DSLR?


Ciao ciao, Colin

Astronomy Photographers have been modifying their DSLRs in a few different ways since they came out. There is a huge difference in sensitivity.


Some only modify the IR/UV filters while other modify like you want making it a monochrome camera. But I believe there is more to it than just removing or replacing the filters, and it's not cheap unless you're brave enough to do it yourself. You can also have it modified so you can use various clip-in filters.

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Originally Posted by Colin500

it should be 1-2 stops more sensitive

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That sounds about right to me, and I think it would be a great benefit to low light photography.

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Originally Posted by Colin500

And it should produce sharper pictures due to not needing the demosaic.

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In most images, microcontrast varies very little between color channels, so a Bayer with no AA gives me the same Luma resolution as a B&W camera would. The B&W would only have a contrast/resolution advantage for rare images that have very high-frequency chroma resolution, such as the fine detail in a red-on-red man-made fabric. It's similar to the times when you notice an uncompressed TIFF has more color detail than a 100% quality jpeg. (For the types of images I take, that does not happen very often.)

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Originally Posted by Colin500

If you then also scrap the AA filter it'd be even sharper

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That's where the biggest contrast benefit would be.

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Originally Posted by Colin500

I would think that the AA filter wouldn't be as necessary anyhow

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For most photographers, I agree. For a few rare photographers, such as myself, it would still be just as necessary.


There are many artifacts that occur when an image is not correctly anti-aliased; they can be described as<span>jaggies, stair-stepping, sparkling, "snap to grid", wavy lines, bands, patterns, fringing, popping, strobing, noise, false detail, and moire.


To me and a few others, these are horrible image artifacts to be avoided at all costs. But to most photographers, the artifacts are described as desirable "crunchiness", "sharpness", etc. The only artifact that everyone dislikes is chroma moire. Since chroma moire is impossible in B&amp;W, most photographers would probably rather have no AA filter.



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Originally Posted by Colin500

(because I could imagine that without the demosaic, and the resulting higher effective resolution, Moire wouldn't be such a big problem as to require this artificial blurring).

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Unfortunately, removing the need for demosaic wont reduce the problem of moire. The only difference is that B&amp;W will get luma aliasing artifacts, whereas Bayer cameras can have luma and chroma aliasing artifacts.

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Originally Posted by Colin500

Who else would buy a B/W only DSLR?

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I would -- but only for astrophotography (so no IR filter).

Mostly over my head, but as someone who fondly misses just about everything about B&amp;W film (except maybe the smell of HC110), I would be interested in a DSLR body that replicated true B&amp;W. I do have Silver Efex Pro 2, but I just don

I

The next thing we'll want is a hand powered washing machine wringer!


Sorry. I couldn't resist.....[;)]