Monochrom on the cheap (not Leica) with three filters built-in

Must be nice to afford a Leica for B&W, i.e. grayscale work!

However, apart from converting any old image from color to grayscale, there are other cameras that can do that.

One such is the mighty Foveon where one raw pixel is derived from three sub-pixels stacked as layers on top of each other ... no Bayer demosaicing to get color is necessary!

Here they are:

The good news is that each layer image can be extracted from .X3F raw files separately as a grayscale image with a built-in filter. For instance, extracting the "red" layer gets you a grayscale shot with a sorta Orange filter, whereas the "green" layer approximates a CIE "Y" response.

Early Sigma Foveon cameras can be quite cheap you-know-where and the so-called "Merrill" models' proprietary raw converter can extract all or any of the three layer images and even mix them together.

Hi,

Your title made me think this was about a Kodak DCS 460m and the color wheel The original high resolution solution for digital product photography.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Here's the color wheel in monochrome Mode from Sigma Photo Pro V.5.5.3 with 100% red layer selected, no adjustments:

Here's the embedded JPEG with no adjustments:

Here's the embedded JPEG desaturated in the GIMP, 'luminance' method, no adjustments:

General comment, perhaps for those can see little difference between the 100% red layer above and the luminance color de-saturated image above:

Different de-saturation methods suit some scenes better than others, see this extract from a mammoth Work by Martin Cadik:

The column of color images at left is converted with six known methods, including good old CIE Y. It is noticeable that the oh-so-common CIE Y is rarely the best in these examples. In particular, please note the difference between it and method 'Du15' in the top row.

Much more info here: kronometric.org/phot/iq/CompBW%20convs.pdf

Perhaps we are approaching a time when AI will analyze a subject image then apply a suitable methodology based on rules input by the User ...

... and here is link to the aforementioned mammoth Work with larger images and preference/accuracy results from the 121 observers:

cadik.posvete.cz/color_to_gray_evaluation/

Wow. I have a Sigma DP1 Merrill that hasn't been shot in years. I did try converting a few files to mono with the included post processing software. Don't think I ever used just 1 layer. Will have to revisit the DP1.
Thanks for the tip,
barondla

Be careful - SPP also has a monochrome setting under 'White Balance', I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about the Monochrome Mode which is selectable at the top of the 'Adjustments' dialog in the 'Review' window ...

I haven’t used SPP for many years - mainly because I no longer use the Sigma (SD9). I have recently reprocessed some of the X3Fs from years ago and find that Photoshop does a much better job with them. Has SPP improved over the years?

Best wishes
A

I am probably not the person to ask that, having gone retro Sigma-wise (I only have an SD9 and a couple of SD10s) and also my computer is Adobe-free. See my grumpy post with a comment re:SPP here www.dpreview.com/forums/threads/what-if.4829843/#post-68606428.

Over the years, perhaps due to constant whining by Users, SPP got more options and bigger - and when the Quattro model came out, it's X3F raws could not be opened by any version prior to 6.0.0. Equally, Merrill model raws can not be opened by any version prior to 5.0.0. Personally, both irritated me to extent that I never bought a Quattro and only kept V.5.5.3 for my existing Merrill X3Fs. Otherwise, I've stuck with V.3.5.2 for my SD9/SD10 shots. Neither SD9 nor SD10 produces full-size embedded JPEGs, but full-size individual layer images can be extracted by not-free RawDigger.

I believe that I have 3.5.2 and 5.5.3 on my website if anyone's interested ...