Digital BW, The Print

To jump back in, having learned a lot from this discussion.  Here's Canon 
tech support on BW with the G2:
-----------
Images taken directly with the camera will have finer details than one
that is converted in a software application. During the conversion some
of the detail will be lost.
-----------

I asked for clarification on how the camera actually makes captures the BW 
image.  What happens when the subject is something like a stop sign that 
would give very different output on the RGB channels?  Maybe Canon will 
address the questions of luminance, RGB, interpolation, etc.  Austin's 
remarks make me curious:
---------
 > And although it's a sophisticated algorithm...
Actually, it's REALLY simple, you'd be surprised.
--------
Bob


At 08:37 AM 2/7/2002, you wrote:

> > Then how is grayscale handled? Are every 4 sensors averaged into
> > one,
>
>No, not typically...
>
> > or is
> > interpolation done for each sensor individually?
>
>Yes.
>
>It's not a straight forward problem.  Remember, each sensor from a quad RGBG
>isn't looking at the exact same thing...so they are measuring different
>"space", so to say.  That means you just can't necessarily "combine" the
>four (three) color values...but on the other hand, none of the values are
>really complete unto themselves.  Answer is, no matter what is done, it's
>got to be processed...and in doing so, it makes it more so not reality,
>though it may look great.
>
>Austin