M8 and color filters for b/W conversion

[rtai]

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I am a happy user of an M10M and wish I can have two because when I start travelling again I would like to have a back up. Unfortunately my wallet says no but I have an M8.2 I use occasionally for color with a 21mm Super Elmar-M with an uv/ir filter. If the shot looked better converted to b/W I would do so. So why not use it for b/W as my M10M back up? 

My question is: all my lenses have a yellow filter on them all Summilux models from 21mm to 50mm and if I use them on the M8.2 it would have a color cast of course but I’ll covert it to b/W anyway. Do color filter use help or hinder the conversion of does it matter at all?  While I can certain remove the color filter when using the M8.2 it is a hassle I want to avoid.

[Jeff S]

I preferred using my M8.2 with a UV/IR cut filter, for both color and b/w, even though some preferred no UV/IR filter for b/w. I never used colored filters on my M8.2, relying on color channels in PP, judiciously as desired, for DNG b/w conversions. I definitely wouldn’t want colored filters on when shooting color. If your M8.2 is a back-up rather than a companion second body, I wouldn’t think that you’d have much need for it, or for removing/exchanging filters.

Jeff

[adan]

Using a yellow filter on a color digital camera will not necessarily "hinder" a B&W conversion - but it may produce artifacts.

Keep in mind that every individual pixel of a color digital camera (except those with Foveon sensors) ALREADY has a color filter over it. Red, Green or Blue. That is how they are able to "see" in color in the first place.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

If you then put a yellow filter over the lens, the blue-filtered camera pixels will essentially be blind (blue filters block yellow light, yellow filters block blue light - nothing gets through). Those pixels will just be pure black (or nearly so) and you will be losing ~1/4 of your potential brightness data.

That will likely result in "patchy" or excessively "noisy-looking" conversion of blue things (smooth blue skies in particular).

Since you already have the filtered lenses and the M8.2, you can experiment for yourself. But I suspect that you'll get cleaner results by removing the yellow filters on the lenses, and doing your "yellow-filtering" with conversion controls in post-processing.

[jaapv]

Basically the only filters that cannot be replicated in postprocessing are ND filters and Pol filters.  - and some effect filters like Star.  For the rest using the  colour options in converting will produce better results.