Gear advice Dedicated B & W camera or convert to B & W with Nikon D850?

[Jeff Maron Photography]

Hello,
I have been trying to find information on this subject. Simply does a dedicated B & W camera give a higher photo quality then a photograph from a Nikon D850 set to Black and White? I would like to know all of your opinions and the models you would recommend for high quality B & W photography IF you feel that the photo quality is better with a dedicated B & W camera. By the way my B & W photos are usually of aged subjects such as graveyards, churches, really anything with an aged appearance and that could include elderly people as well.
Thank you in advance to all of those who respond.

 

[Vas (Jack)]

Hi Jeff Maron Photography , In my opinion all cameras can deliver great BW images, is all depending on your lens. You also can make the photo BW in Lightroom. Can you share some of your images here?

 

[Jeff Maron Photography]

Thank you for the response Jack. I currently edit my photos in Lightroom, that includes B & W as well. Here are a few of my B & W photos.

 

[Vas (Jack)]

I really love the last one Jeff Maron Photography . Are you looking to upgrade your camera?

 

[Jeff Maron Photography]

No I'm not looking to upgrade but I was thinking if I wanted a camera solely for black and white. I like my D850 and really don't see a need to upgrade for colour photos anyways.

 

[Andy Smith]

Personally Jeff I think a colour camera is slightly more flexible for B&W as it gives you many options in post to get the desired effect you are looking for.
That being said, B&W cameras certainly have their place, probably more so in the past though when we used actual film.
A dedicated B&W camera that can produce great results is usually quite expensive, and to be honest I believe the image quality is really down to dynamic range that the camera can utilise, so you would have to shop wisely and be ready to spend quite a few dollars for a camera that produces better results than your D850.
Modern colour cameras have great dynamic range, so provide a great base for B&W conversion in post whereas a B&W camera will provide a B&W image that may or may not be to your liking. If you shoot colour you have many options for B&W conversion, including NIK Silver Effects which is a great tool in my opinion for B&W imaging.
A B&W camera may provide slightly better results than using a colour camera in monochrome mode, but to be honest I don't think we would even notice the difference unless you look really hard, due to the modern sensors in cameras, and I still prefer the flexibility of shooting in colour and converting to B&W in post.

 

[Jeff Maron Photography]

Thank you very much Andy for your educated response. I had thought that it really was about dynamic range as well but I wasn't positive. The D850 has fabulous dynamic range so I believe that considering your opinion, I am fine with the camera body. I will definitely look into the NIK Silver Effects as that may seem like the next route to take.
Again I sincerely thank you for your opinion,
Jeff

 

[Vas (Jack)]

No I'm not looking to upgrade but I was thinking if I wanted a camera solely for black and white. I like my D850 and really don't see a need to upgrade for colour photos anyways.

To be honest, I never seen a camera that does only bw images, probably the old film cameras, which will require a bit of money and some knowledge too.


I usually get bw effect in post processing, if I wanted too. I also have m50 camera which does have bw shooting features, which I don't use often.

 

[Jeff Maron Photography]

The one's I know of are made by Leica such as the Leica Q2 Monochrom, Leica M and the Leica M10 however they are quite expensive. My next course of action is purchasing Nik Silver Efex.

 

[Morexp57]

To be honest, I never seen a camera that does only bw images, probably the old film cameras, which will require a bit of money and some knowledge too.


I usually get bw effect in post processing, if I wanted too. I also have m50 camera which does have bw shooting features, which I don't use often.

On my camera, I can choose BW in the settings. I don't know if there is an advantage to doing it this way over converting in post processing.

 

[Vas (Jack)]

On my camera, I can choose BW in the settings. I don't know if there is an advantage to doing it this way over converting in post processing.

Honestly, I tried only couple of times that feature on my camera, I prefer to take the photo In normal mode and make it BW in Lightroom. Gives me a bit more control.

 

[Vas (Jack)]

The one's I know of are made by Leica such as the Leica Q2 Monochrom, Leica M and the Leica M10 however they are quite expensive. My next course of action is purchasing Nik Silver Efex.

I would personally buy new lens and keep the current camera.

 

[Morexp57]

Honestly, I tried only couple of times that feature on my camera, I prefer to take the photo In normal mode and make it BW in Lightroom. Gives me a bit more control.

Yes, so am I. I have only used BW in very rare cases, and I also prefer to have the choice to convert a colour image to BW in post processing.

 

[Vas (Jack)]

Yes, so am I. I have only used BW in very rare cases, and I also prefer to have the choice to convert a colour image to BW in post processing.

There are more options to convert a colour photo to BW, I would say.

 

[panos_adgr]

All digital cameras function under the exactly same principal. There is a sensor a cpu with an algorithm and a final file stored in a storage media.

There are though as you wrote some dedicated B&W cameras. There are also various projects of converting dslr cameras to dedicated monochrome cameras.
Bellow is a link from a company that makes camera conversions.
The D850 is one of the best DSLR cameras you could own anyway even today especially in the fields of dynamic range, signal to noise ratio and detail. Now concerning the comparison between dedicated monochrome cameras is a bit pointless. The monochromatic sensors differ in their design as they do not have the color 'filtering' (to put it simple) in each pixel. This results in better contrast, detail and in better spatial information. (at least this is what is mentioned in some articles and not my personal opinion.)

Nikon D850M

LDP LLC www.MaxMax.com optical products and photonics

maxmax.com

I also use 2 D850s and I'm very satisfied from what the camera is capable of in dynamic range, information, detail etc. Now, if you crave for contrasty, vibrant B&W images with the detail of the D850 you can create a custom Image profile using the the base 'monochrome' mode of the camera or the Nikon Picture Control Utility app, before spending money in a solely monochromatic camera.

 

[panos_adgr]

Hi Jeff Maron Photography , In my opinion all cameras can deliver great BW images, is all depending on your lens. You also can make the photo BW in Lightroom. Can you share some of your images here?

I will quote the words of Jack to add some words to what he wrote.
The lens is of mandatory importance in the final result. Especially in contrast as well as micro contrast, color rendition (and tone depth) and detail.
In example from my personal experience and equipment my Tamron 15-30mm G2 has such an amazing contrast and color rendering that in post processing I almost never need to add vibrance or selective color saturation. If I use my Nikkor AF-S 24-85mm VR which is a budget full frame standard zoom the results are very flat with significantly lower contrast and flatter colors which need some work in post processing. My 50mm f/1.8 has a completely different behaviour than the other two which also changes from wide open to the sweet spot range (f/4.0 - f/8.0). There are also great differences between me different 50mm lenses I own.

All these are translated to characteristics which, sometimes depending on what I'm shooting, make me choose the lens to 'go to' .
Especially when I shoot B&W the Tamron is my way to go a long as the 15-30 range covers my need in any given situation. I might add some photos as an example later.

 

[RonP_4x5-Photo]

Hello,
I have been trying to find information on this subject. Simply does a dedicated B & W camera give a higher photo quality then a photograph from a Nikon D850 set to Black and White? I would like to know all of your opinions and the models you would recommend for high quality B & W photography IF you feel that the photo quality is better with a dedicated B & W camera. By the way my B & W photos are usually of aged subjects such as graveyards, churches, really anything with an aged appearance and that could include elderly people as well.
Thank you in advance to all of those who respond.

Hi Jeff, New to this site today but thought I'd offer my opinion to your question. Since you are using a digital camera it's my belief that you will get more information for processing your images if you exposure in color and convert to BnW in post. Color files are larger because they hold more information in the RGB channels that BnW files do not have. For me better to have the infomation in the file to work with from the start. Just my opinion.

 

[Morexp57]

Thank you for the response Jack. I currently edit my photos in Lightroom, that includes B & W as well. Here are a few of my B & W photos.View attachment 1811View attachment 1812

View attachment 1813

The bridge picture is stun. Personally I prefer color pictures and perform very rarely BW.
here is an interesting article about a new BW only camera:

https://www.digitec.ch/en/page/new-camera-from-pentax-can-only-do-black-and-white-but-why-27309?utm_campaign=teaser-27309&utm_content=list-HotNewMarketingPages&dg_entity_type=marketingPage&dg_entity_id=27309&dg_recommender_id=HotNewMarketingPages&utm_source=dig_kw-17-23_pers-2&utm_medium=newsletter