black and white in camera? / program mode

[mpphoto12]

wjile in the city with some friends i noticed one of my friends feature on his d300. He had a black and white effect in the camera and he used it along with program mode all day. The pictures came out awesome. For some time i have been searching for a new camera. I was wondering if any canon camera has the feature to do black and white before PP. Also as far as program mode goes... i have noticed it is not very effective on lower end cameras like my XT but very good on higher end cameras. Would a 1d series such as the 1d mark II or the 50D have a better program mode? thanks

[Rodger]

I may be horribly wrong, but I think any camera that says it has "Picture styles" has the capability to shoot "monochromatic" pictures. Most of the newer models have picture styles. My buddy's XSi has them. My 20D does not. lol.


I can't offer any insight into the Program mode question. Sorry.


-Rodger

[mpphoto12]

ok thanks you i was hoping so becasue i like the 50D very much and that would be a good feature

[Keith B]

50D does. My 40D does as does my 5DmkII.


I use it in combination of shooting RAWs. So I can have a preview of how all the elements are working together in BW. Then I convert the RAW file to BW later.

[mpphoto12]

ok cool thanks! would the 1D Mark II have it by any chance? what difference could there be between the quality of the pictures chot on program on the 1d series vs. the 50D?

[Chuck Lee]

mpphoto12,


The black and white process on most Canon cameras are going to be desaturated jpegs. I don't think you'll see a different black and white output from camera model to camera model. The differences will be in how the internal Digic I,II,III, or IV process handles the tones of the recorded colors. The black and white output is a simple desaturation of the color leaving only grayscale. The Nikon D300 may do more but I imagine that it is more a function of a boosted mid tone curve than a special black & white conversion. Nikon has a tendency to boost the mid tones of an image to create a perception of higher dynamic range. Canon has a tendency to leave it alone. Black and whites out of a Canon camera will probably look more dark gray rather than mid tone boosted black and white. This is a simple thing to emulate in post processing, especially if you shoot Canon RAW.


The D300 is Nikon's newest offering and I'm sure it has some great bells and whistles. Progam mode is just a camera setting. Most Canon cameras have this"P" mode. basically, when set to "Program mode" the camera chooses an aperature based on the scene and the depth of fieldit feels the scene requires. It then sets an acceptable shutter speed, (sometime too low) based on the ISO you have the camera set too. Digital SLRs have had this "p" mode for along time. My 2000 model Olympus C4040 had program mode. Some film cameras had this mode. It's nothing more than an camera based auto aperture/exposure setting. In normal daylight it is a very consistent and convienent mode.

[IAMB]

ok cool thanks! would the 1D Mark II have it by any chance? what difference could there be between the quality of the pictures chot on program on the 1d series vs. the 50D?
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1D mkII doesn't have picture styles... the 1D IIN does. As far as setting the mkII to shoot in B+W, it won't as far as I can tell (I've been trying to figure out if it's possible on mine and the best I can do is really low saturation). If you want black and white with a 1D II, like others have said it's no big deal to shoot normally and then play with the image until you're happy during processing.