B & W conversation

[The Wizard]

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I am reading an interesting article this morning by Ming Thein about black and white conversation, and I quote as follows:

" I've gotten a lot of emails after the leica x2 and monochrom reviews asking about B&W conversion and processing. It doesn't make color cameras redundant though. Certain camera have certain black and white characteristics. True but only if you use JPEG."

He goes on to say that in Raw he can basically get the same results and does it consistently with different cameras.

Interesting concept. Any comments?

 

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[chris_livsey]

First of all your quote comes from 2012 and both in camera jpeg conversions and RAW processing have come a long way since then. Well the M8 jpeg output hasn't of course but RAW programmes certainly have.

 

I would say more importantly he states the case for the technically  "better" output of cameras without a Bayer filter (or the Fuji equivalent) whilst noting the limitations of the lack of colour response to add to the B/W conversion in a RAW processor and in some cases in camera jpeg conversions such as Fuji offers as an option.

 

That different camera makers have different ideas of how an out of camera B/W jpeg should look is no different than their different approaches to colour output where again those skilled in the art can match RAW files across cameras from different makers. Famously done to match, on a double blind test, albeit with on-line images and their restrictions, between the CCD M9 and the CMOS M240 by Davis Farkas, link to the third part FYI : https://www.reddotforum.com/content/2015/03/the-great-debate-ccd-vs-cmos-part-3/

 

I really don't see anything in your quotation or in the full article: https://blog.mingthein.com/2012/05/29/black-and-white-workflow-and-conversion-options/ that is new, or indeed was new in 2012, what he neglects of course is the lens contribution to the final output. This is evidenced by one of his more recent posts on his Hasselblad cameras where he is using Leica lenses on the Hasselblad X1-D  and states "But when it delivers, I find that it delivers something quite special by the truckload."  

Edited March 30, 2018 by chris_livsey

[steamboat]

I agree. Whether DNG from M240 or M8.2, Nikon NEF or Canon CR2 - all my black & white conversions look the same.

[pico]

I agree. Whether DNG from M240 or M8.2, Nikon NEF or Canon CR2 - all my black & white conversions look the same.

 

Are you simply desaturating the image?