Digital BW, The Print

Hi Paul,

> While I think the current RGB sensors may not be up to what I like to do,
> there are some clear advantages to direct digital image capture.
> I think a
> true high-res B&W sensor could be terrific.  I'm just not sure
> the market is
> large enough for the big companies to address (at reasonable cost).

All the image sensors used, except the Foveon, in "one shot" digital cameras
are monochrome sensors.  They are made into a color sensor by the addition
of an RGBG filter over the sensor...  Point is, it's not the sensor that is
the issue, the filter can be removed...the cameras firmware has to
accommodate the use of the sensor as B&W...so it's simply a matter of
reprogramming the camera firmware, and re-doing some of the interface
software.

> So, here's a modest (and probably very naive) proposal: Perhaps
> someone with
> an old digital camera that is now worthless could take a Q-tip and see if
> the filters on the sensor will dissolve off with something like lacquer
> thinner without ruining the sensor.  Then maybe some of our software gurus
> can figure out how to take the raw file format data and get it into a
> useable, high-res B&W form.

This probably won't work.  The sensor data runs through a PRNU
(Photo-Response-Non-Uniformity) "filter" (...so as I said above, firmware
has to be re-written) more than likely even in raw mode...

> It sounds like a B&W version of the new Canon 11 MP camera could be an
> amazing machine.  Maybe a letter-writing campaign to Canon is in order.

That might be the better alternative ;-)

Regards,

Austin