Digital BW, The Print

I have lately gotten into Black and White Pics. It is amazing how just switching a mundane color pic to B&W can give that pic a completely different personality. It doesn't work with every picture but some of them just look better in B&W. 

My question is, does the B&W function on the camera (I use an Olympus 3030z) give you the same picture as you would get if you used your Camedia or other editing software to change the color pic to B&W?

Thanks for your help.

Dennis Elliott


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"Dennis Elliott" <dennise@...> writes:

> I have lately gotten into Black and White Pics. It is amazing how
> just switching a mundane color pic to B&W can give that pic a
> completely different personality. It doesn't work with every picture
> but some of them just look better in B&W.
> 
> My question is, does the B&W function on the camera (I use an
> Olympus 3030z) give you the same picture as you would get if you
> used your Camedia or other editing software to change the color pic
> to B&W?

I don't know, either for your 3030z or for my Epson 850z.  My guess is
that it does essentially the same thing.  

But in theory, treating the output from the RGBG-masked CCD
differently in the in-camera software could produce a B&W picture with
more real resolution (not more pixels) than generating color, and then
throwing the color away.  I haven't been able to find any evidence
that any consumer camera actually does this.
-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@...  /  Ghugle: the Fannish Ghod of Queries
 John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net
        Book log: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/Ouroboros/booknotes/
                 Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/

I don't know about the Camedia, but the Canon G2 you are better off to 
shoot the image in color and process in software. The Canon allows you 
to convert the raw format into 16 bit tiff - thus getting all 10 bits of 
the A/D dymanic range.  There are many manual adjustments available in 
the color mode that are not available in black and white mode.

Check out the forums over at dpreview.com.

Truman

Dennis Elliott wrote:

> I have lately gotten into Black and White Pics. It is amazing how just 
> switching a mundane color pic to B&W can give that pic a completely 
> different personality. It doesn't work with every picture but some of 
> them just look better in B&W.
>
> My question is, does the B&W function on the camera (I use an Olympus 
> 3030z) give you the same picture as you would get if you used your 
> Camedia or other editing software to change the color pic to B&W?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Dennis Elliott