Does anyone know of a black and white digital camera? I prefer the textures of a black and white photo, and software conversion just doesn't cut it (abrupt transitions in the skies color, lost semi-shadows, etc.).

If you know of software that converts to 16.7 million shades of gray (or better) a suggestion would also be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I am thinking sub-$500

-- Tim Popham (timpopham@altavista.net), February 26, 2000

Answers

Color cameras yield 16 million shades of color because they have 256 shades for each of red, green & blue. That is, each of red, green and blue intensity level is captured in an 8-bit numeric value, so the total color is captured in 24-bit value, and 2 to the 24th. power is 16 million.

You ask for a black & white camera with 16 million gray levels. I believe this would be impossible with today's technology as it would imply 24-bit capture of light intensity level (ignoring color) and that is too fine a gradation for the circuits of the moment.

You certainly can get 256 gray tones, and some cameras talk about 10-bit or so intensity levels, which would be 1024 levels. Beyonf that it seems you will not be able to go.

Of course, most if not all cameras sold today are color only, but you can convert a color image to black and white after it is transferred to your computer.

In my experience, most cameras that claim to support black & white mode in-camera do so by merely storing the image without color, but as a 24-bit color jpeg, i.e. the red, green, and blue channels are ifdentical and the photo needlessly takes three times the file size that it could take if it were stored as an 8-bit jpeg.

-bruce

-- bruce komusin (bkomusin@bigfoot.com), February 26, 2000.

Look at it this way and you may see things differently. A digital camera takes three black and white images with three different filters. There are three channels red, green, and blue. You have just taken a black and white image with three different filters simultaneosly. If you open the image in photoshop and look at the channels you will find nice dark skies in the red channel, and better skin tones in the green , and interesting contrast with the blue filter. The only problem is that you lose a portion of the resolution when you only use one channel. Something to think about.

-- jonathan ratzlaff (jonathanr@clrtech.bc.ca), February 26, 2000.

I just received my Nikon CP 950 Friday afternoon. Although it is not yet below $500.00, I got mine for $720.00 from onvia.com. The camera does have a Black & White mode.

Steve

-- Steve Buttram (swb@mac.com), February 26, 2000.

I believe the Sony FD-73 has a B&W mode. It is available from pcwonders.com at $420. It takes color also and has a 10X optical zoom lens. Resolution is only 640 X 480. Some of the other Mavicas also have B&W mode (monotone), but with more pixels. The FD-88 has 1280 X 960 pixels and is $678 at pcwonders.com.

Rodger

-- Rodger Carter (rodger.carter@wpafb.af.mil), February 29, 2000.

Lots of CCD cameras for astronomy applications are Black & White only, with full resolution and high sensitivity. Some of them are designed to be portable. You can look them up in amateur astronomy magazines available at supermarket and bookstore magazine racks, or at public libraries.

-- Mau Pham (phamm@ti.com), March 15, 2000.