[Leica] B&W only version of M8 - anyone else hear this?

[abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge)]

Tina, I'd agree with you IF everything between the sensors was equal.
But a lot of real estate on the sensor is used for color and there are
filtration layers that reduce the amount of light that reaches the
sensor's light-sensitive buckets. Plus there are more sites now
available on the chip for image capture.

So if you nix the color you get more light to the sensor and hence a
higher ISO or the same ISO with less noise. You also get more pixels.

This seems like a real win to me. I have a nice selection of filters
for my lenses already. I will have to make the filter selection in the
field - as I do with film today - so I don't get the post-processing
that I can do in color whether film or digital.

But I suspect that we'd gain at least a stop in sensitivity and an
effective stop in terms of noise.  That would be worth-while for
available light photography which is really the domain of the M.

But I understand what you're saying - I just see some real advantages.

Adam

On 10/2/06, Tina Manley <images@infoave.net> wrote:
> At 09:06 PM 10/2/2006, you wrote:
>
> >Anyway, if there's any added rumors I'm all ears and VERY interested.
> >
> >Thanks for sharing!
> >
> >Adam
>
> I don't understand why anybody would want a B&W version over a RAW
> version.  RAW is the negative.  You can develop it any way you
> want.  Once it's been developed as B&W, you can't redevelop it for
> highlights or shadows or anything else.  Why would you want
> that?  RAW has all of the information that the camera captures.  B&W
> only would throw away most of this information. Are you going to
> depend on the camera software to develop the negative for you? It
> doesn't make sense to make a B&W only camera!
>
> Tina
>
> Tina Manley, ASMP, NPPA
> http://www.tinamanley.com
>
>
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