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Who wants a Sony 25 megapixel DSLR?

harcosparky said:
One of my 'wish list' items is a 35mm format DSLR that does Black & White ( I know there are tools to convert color digital images to B&W - but it's not as good ) ... Then maybe I can retire my EOS 3 and film scanner! :D
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That's actually very easy for the camera makers to give you. Just remove the colour filter array from the sensor. I always wondered why someone didn't come out with such a camera. The resolution would be might better, photos would be sharper, and around 3 times more sensitive to light. High ISO work would be quite noise-free.
 
Abstract said:
That's actually very easy for the camera makers to give you. Just remove the colour filter array from the sensor. I always wondered why someone didn't come out with such a camera. The resolution would be might better, photos would be sharper, and around 3 times more sensitive to light. High ISO work would be quite noise-free.
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Actually I think someone has ... though not in 35mm format.

I recall reading somewhere about a B&W only digital camera ....
6MP ( 24mmX36mm sensor array) to 39 MP ( 36mm X 48mm sensor array ) with prices from $7,000 to $26,000.

Actually I just foun their website .....

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

Available in 6, 11, 16, and 39 megapixel resolutions, these E Series backs represent the pinnacle in monochrome capture quality. E Series MonoChrome images are better than color images converted to grayscale because:

1. They don't have residual artifacts left over from the color sensor's Bayer pattern filtration.

2. Without the Bayer filtration's ISO robbing filter factor, they utilize over twice the light from the scene, resulting in over twice the S/N.

3. The need for developing and the anti-aliasing filter common to Bayer pattern dSLR devices is eliminated. Without developing, there are no developing errors. Without the anti-alias filter, you can actually see how sharp your lenses are with our MonoChrome backs.

The quality of MonoChrome E back images easily surpass the quality of color captures converted to grayscale. The Bayer pattern imposes fundamental limitations when the lens is sharply focused on a finely detailed, high frequency reflectance. On color catpures, the fine detail on the order of one pixel in size at the focal plane will give rise to image artifacts due to color aliasing. Digital processing can reduce such errors, often to acceptable levels for color images. But there are numerous imaging situations (such as repeating patterns with a frequency at the focal plane close to the pixel pitch) which produce luminance moire that cannot be eliminated without considerable effort, and then, only at the expense of image quality.

Alias induced errors can only be fully eliminated by employing an optical low pass filter such as is normally integrated into dSLR's. These filters work by diffusing and obscuring the sharply focused fine details. After the low pass anti-alias diffusion, sharp edges turn into soft edges, commonly smearing color across pixel boundaries. The optical low pass filter is equally effective at reducing image sharpness as it is at reducing aliasing errors.
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The questions would be do I love B&W enough to spend $7K for a 6MP back or not? I think for now I will stick to shooting B&W with film and scanning it, or breaking out the checkbook and then having to go to work to repay the checking account!

Ya know after going on with this thread and reading some others, I decided to get off my butt, went out and shot 3 rolls of T-Maxx 100. Developed them and now gonna pick out the ones I like, scan and print them.

EDIT: I left in a typo for the comedians!!! :p:D
 
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