Digital BW, The Print

scrber writes:

> What about the Foveon filter used in the Sigmas?

It still produces RGB output.  You need a sensor that does not filter
the image into red, green, and blue components, but simply responds to
overall light intensity.  CCDs without filters do exactly this (except
that they also tend to be sensitive to infrared, which must usually be
filtered out), so a CCD without an RGB filter would make an excellent
B&W camera.

But anything that filters light into RGB, be it film or electronic, will
produce results equal in quality to that of straight B&W capture.

> I heard that this kind of sensor would have real benefits
> for B&W photographers.

The Foveon produces information for all three colors for each pixel,
which is a great step ahead for color resolution and overall resolution;
however, this doesn't eliminate the problem that RGB presents for B&W
photography.