Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Anthony G. 
Atkielski" <anthony@a...> wrote:
> 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.




Sorry, I must be dumb, but I just don't get it.  Why is shooting 
colour (RGB or whatever) worse than shooting B&W straight?  You 
mention loosing 2/3 data.  Don't you have 3 times more...?  Or is it 
that the colour image is comprised of 3 (black and white) channels 
and that in the conversion process you can only take one of these (be 
it a blend of the three individual ones or not) as the final 
greyscale image.

Thinking out loud, what if you took a picture of a largely b&W or 
desatureated scene in both RGB and with B&W film - do you have a 
disadvantage in RGB then or not?

Sorry for the 101....

Steve