Digital BW, The Print

Hi Tony,

> Thanks all for this great discussion. As regards scanning neutral density
> images (B & W) on a color scanner,

Actually, I was talking about scanning using a ND filter over the CCD.
Typically, film scanners scan B&W film using RGB filters...

> would it make a difference if
> instead of
> changing the sensors, the light source was another color?

I believe the Nikon scanners try varying the light source for the three
different colors (RGB), and I guess if they wanted to, they could just scan
B&W using white light...if that's what you're getting at. I don't believe
they work that way now though...unfortunately.

> I
> presume the best
> solution would be a sensor array that was not sensitive to color
> at all but
> just light intensity.

It's the colored filters that make the CCD sensitive to a particular
spectral range, without a colored filter (or simply using a ND filter), it
is responsive to the entire spectral range it is sensitive to, which is far
wider than the RGB range.

Regards,

Austin