Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: erick.boileau on April 29, 2008, 01:53:32 am

Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: erick.boileau on April 29, 2008, 01:53:32 am
I am dreaming of a digital back with black and white sensor
do you think there is a chance some day ? :-)
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: klane on April 29, 2008, 02:10:27 am
Quote
I am dreaming of a digital back with black and white sensor
do you think there is a chance some day ? :-)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192415\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Megavision used to make one....they might still make it? is megavision still kickin'?
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: erick.boileau on April 29, 2008, 02:49:44 am
Quote
Megavision used to make one....they might still make it? is megavision still kickin'?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192416\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


no idea at all

it will be good to know if we are many lokking for it
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: AndrewDyer on April 29, 2008, 03:51:43 am
I'm not really "into" B&W myself enough to want a dedicated B&W sensor, but can you tell me if it would be of any advantage over the existing colour ones...?
... particularly when the results and amount of control you can get from using the Photoshop CS3 (or Lightroom, ACR) B&W conversion - with the various colour sliders - is fantastic.
I imagine you would loose all this control with a straight B&W sensor?
Thanks for your thoughts.
A
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: erick.boileau on April 29, 2008, 04:16:39 am
Quote
I'm not really "into" B&W myself enough to want a dedicated B&W sensor, but can you tell me if it would be of any advantage over the existing colour ones...?
... particularly when the results and amount of control you can get from using the Photoshop CS3 (or Lightroom, ACR) B&W conversion - with the various colour sliders - is fantastic.
I imagine you would loose all this control with a straight B&W sensor?
Thanks for your thoughts.
A
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192429\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

you will loose  photoshop B&W conversion but you will get 10 time more
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: jmboss on April 29, 2008, 04:32:08 am
Megavision is still alive and well.

They have 6, 11, 16, and 39 megapixel B&W digital backs available.

See the following web address for all the info about them and why you might want one:

http://www.mega-vision.com/products/Mono/Mono.htm (http://www.mega-vision.com/products/Mono/Mono.htm)

Cheers,

Joe
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: Harold Clark on April 29, 2008, 10:42:10 pm
Quote
I am dreaming of a digital back with black and white sensor
do you think there is a chance some day ? :-)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192415\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Betterlight makes a B&W version but it is a scan back. The resolution should be great though.
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: shutay on April 29, 2008, 11:01:10 pm
One thing that comes to mind is that a B&W sensor would require the use of coloured filters on the lens if you wanted to say, use a red, or green filter, etc. to modify contrast, tones, etc. whereas shooting in colour and converting later affords certain advantages and flexibility in this respect as you can get quite close to this in post processing with less bother in the field. I would think that this practical advantage would keep colour bayer sensors ahead in B&W photography. Anyone care to contest this?
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: Kirk Gittings on April 29, 2008, 11:10:46 pm
IMO, as a 38 year b&w photographer, I have no interest in a b&w sensor. Being able to shoot in color and convert to b&w with the extraordinary control of tonal relationships that is possible today trumps any need for a monochrome specific sensor.
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: AndrewDyer on April 30, 2008, 03:13:43 am
Thanks for the link Joe.
It was interesting to note the increased quality from using it.... but I personally dont think it is worth the hassle... it's not as though the quality from the colour digital backs is bad...  
A
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: Plekto on April 30, 2008, 01:46:52 pm
Quote
IMO, as a 38 year b&w photographer, I have no interest in a b&w sensor. Being able to shoot in color and convert to b&w with the extraordinary control of tonal relationships that is possible today trumps any need for a monochrome specific sensor.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192592\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

That's not QUITE true.  The problem is that with converted color, the nasty Bayer pattern issues have to be dealt with.  A dedicated black and white sensor would need no such pattern and as such, would replace a film sensor at much lower resolutions.  No moires, fringes, or other nonsense due to the way the sensor is patterned.  You also would need a bit less resolution, since each "pixel" is a real one.   11MP would work for a 35mm film replacement.  39MP would be about exactly right for MF.  I'm not quite sure why they have that 6MP model, though...
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: Tomas Johanson on April 30, 2008, 02:00:17 pm
I saw this some months ago:

http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2007-07-blog....ediumFormatBack (http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2007-07-blog.html#20070726MonochromeMediumFormatBack)

PhaseOne monochrome digital back followup
Saturday, July 28, 2007

Tomas
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: erick.boileau on April 30, 2008, 02:01:26 pm
Quote
I saw this some months ago:

http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2007-07-blog....ediumFormatBack (http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2007-07-blog.html#20070726MonochromeMediumFormatBack)

PhaseOne monochrome digital back followup
Saturday, July 28, 2007

Tomas
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192709\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


thanks a lot for the link, never heard about that before
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: Graham Mitchell on April 30, 2008, 02:14:20 pm
Quote
Megavision is still alive and well.

They have 6, 11, 16, and 39 megapixel B&W digital backs available.

See the following web address for all the info about them and why you might want one:

http://www.mega-vision.com/products/Mono/Mono.htm (http://www.mega-vision.com/products/Mono/Mono.htm)

Cheers,

Joe
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192437\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Shooting in monochrome would mean that you would need to use colour filters in front of the lens to achieve separation for certain scenes, or just special effect (which you could do in Photoshop with a colour shot). This filter undos most of the advantages of the monochrome sensor. I don't see much of a market for this, given that most people would prefer to be able to shoot colour as well.
Title: a chance to see a B&W sensor ?
Post by: BJL on May 01, 2008, 02:15:23 pm
Quote
Shooting in monochrome would mean that you would need to use colour filters in front of the lens to achieve separation for certain scenes, or just special effect (which you could do in Photoshop with a colour shot). This filter undos most of the advantages of the monochrome sensor. I don't see much of a market for this, given that most people would prefer to be able to shoot colour as well.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192711\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I tend to agree, maybe leaving room for one niche B&W back maker, as now. Especially with the option of multi-shot backs for the situation when the subject and camera are completely stationary.

For those who do not know, MS backs take four successive images with the Bayer CFA sensor moved one pixel sideways or vertically between each shot, so that each location in the image is sampled four times, twice in green and once each in red and blue. So the output requires no "demosaicing" or Bayer interpolation: each pixel is measured in full color "3X", or perhaps could even be called "4X".

And with that full color data, one can experiment with color filters later.