Andy Pandy, adjusting one's composition based on a B&W image dsplayed in the viewfinder is not to "admit difficulties" on my behalf or any other B&W photographer's. That's just you being your aggressive self, isn't it? What I wrote to Rob was not controversial, and it's sad that yet again you have derailed a thread. Can you not get help?
Well, fwiw, Rob doesn't feel "controverted" - just surprised that some apparently feel a normal camera and viewfinder limits them. If anything, the idea of a snap, for me, always comes before I lift the camera to my face. A screen in b/white would be an unwelcome intrusion into my real-life view of my subject; to make or not make the shot has already been decided. The next step is shape.
I'm willing to admit that this might, just might be because I have been doing it for so long, but I really don't think it boils down to things like the relative tonal contrast between planes, which seems to be the problem I deduce here from the conversation, because the nub of the thing isn't that: it's the sense of the drama, the potential
within the scene that attracts my eye, not some technical imperative about relativity of tonality ratios etc. That's stuff for theory classes, not practical photography on the hoof.
If you are a fashion photographer shooting mid-toned frocks against mid-toned backgrounds in black/white you are going to have a problem, but that's not many folks' problem here, is it? The problem is usually content and the why of it. As it is for anyone without an assignment, me included.
Rob