black and white on digital slr?

aeser · Jun 1, 2004

i've been looking at the nikon d100 and d70 but recently read that these will actually not let you shoot in black and white and the only way to make your images white is in post-processing like in photoshop?

say it ain't so!

yet i see on this page http://www.usefilm.com/photo_projects/29/pictures_of_the_black_and_white_flower.html someone posting images they say are from a d70 that are black and white and of course COULD have been post processed but i don't know, i guess i'm just hoping someone will tell me i can shoot in black and white on these cameras, and not be lying. please tell me something i don't already know.

thanks

markc · Jun 1, 2004

I know the Canons are color only. I think the Nikons are too. If you want b&w, it requires some post-processing.
Is there a reason you don't want to do this?

drlynn · Jun 1, 2004

Even if they will, I've never seen a digital camera whose internal b&w filter could equal b&w done in Photoshop.

I could be wrong, but there is so much more versatility with PS's channel mixer than in just switching to b&w mode in-camera.

There are some folks on here who own the D70, tho and they'll have a more definitive answer on what's possible and how good the quality is.

voodoocat · Jun 1, 2004

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=29986#29986

aeser · Jun 1, 2004

markc said:
I know the Canons are color only. I think the Nikons are too. If you want b&w, it requires some post-processing.
Is there a reason you don't want to do this?

i'm used to shooting in black and white on my olympus c3030, i just wished i could do this with the d100 or d70 so i can have a better idea of how my pictures will look while i'm composing the shot

aeser · Jun 1, 2004

drlynn said:
Even if they will, I've never seen a digital camera whose internal b&w filter could equal b&w done in Photoshop.

i'm probably just bad at photoshopping but the pictures i've taken with my olympus c3030 in black and white mode blow away those which i took in color and then greyscaled in photoshop

aeser · Jun 1, 2004

voodoocat said:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=29986#29986

thanks! (bookmarked). i've only converted by doing greyscale and it always looked kind of bad.

drlynn · Jun 1, 2004

Yeah, converting to greyscale usually doesn't look all that great.

The best way, imo, is to use the channel mixer, as in Voodoo's tutorial.

You get total control, as you can set the amount of each channel (RGB) that you want to show. Then play with the contrast a bit.

aeser · Jun 1, 2004

drlynn said:
Yeah, converting to greyscale usually doesn't look all that great.

The best way, imo, is to use the channel mixer, as in Voodoo's tutorial.

You get total control, as you can set the amount of each channel (RGB) that you want to show. Then play with the contrast a bit.

yea reading that tutorial made me realize it's not so bad after all and this way i'll always have the option of every image being either color or black and white.