Convert DSLR to B&W and no color??

[dog house riley]

Just a quick question, is it possible to take a current DSLR, and convert to shoot only B&W?

If possible who does it? and is there a better brand of camera for this? please don't say Leica, just too much money. I shoot Nikon, is there body better than others?

Just a quick question, I shoot about 50 50 B&W and color, I could part with a camera body, or purchase a older one.

Thanks. I'm both hot and cold for a Mirrorless system.

"dog house riley"

 

[nail33]

Perhaps a used Pentax K-3 Mark III Monochrome.

 

[grsnovi]

...is it possible...

Most anything is "possible" but the question should be is it practical?

The sensors in typical dslr's are a matrix of RGB color photo-sites, one way to "convert" to b&w would be via s/w. Note that there are existing cameras that shoot color but that also have a b&w option.

The other way would be to replace the color sensor with a b&w sensor. This would likely also require extensive changes to the internal circuit boards as well as the internal s/w.

I don't think either method is going to get you what you're hoping for.

 

[dog house riley]

Thanks to all, I think you may be right, just leave well enough alone.

"dog house riley"

 

[mdmarqphoto]

A number of years ago I looked into having my 70D converted to black and white. If I remember correctly, I found one person/service that was doing it but they specialized in mirrorless and was considering DSLRs only on a per case basis. I never went further at the time, but I'd still like to do it.

 

[D Cox]

Just shoot normally and then use a program such as Irfanview to convert the files to B&W.

Irfanview is still a free program. It works on Windows.

The full version of Photoshop (not Elements) can do batch conversion; Irfanview and Elements can only do one photo at a time.

 

[Jon in Tombstone]

Much simpler to set your camera to display in B/W... shoot RAW images... then convert the RAW from color to B/W in Lightroom, and still be able to edit individual colors in B/W. Great fun, and you'll get great results.

As for rebuilding a DSLR to get rid of the Bayer filter, and be mono, forget it. As a previous post suggested, just get a Pentax mono DSLR. But here's the problem -- even after buying that mono-only camera, you won't be able to tell a difference from a normal DSLR. And whoever views your images certainly won't either. Maybe if you are making very large 30" x 40" prints? I just don't know.

Further -- I also don't know if a mono DSLR's RAW B/W images contain editable color info... like if you wanted to darken anything blue, to make the sky more dramatic, while leaving the other colors unchanged. Anybody know about this?

 

[mdmarqphoto]

Much simpler to set your camera to display in B/W... shoot RAW images... then convert the RAW from color to B/W in Lightroom, and still be able to edit individual colors in B/W. Great fun, and you'll get great results.

This is fine in many cases, but is not the same as using a mono sensor.

As for rebuilding a DSLR to get rid of the Bayer filter, and be mono, forget it. As a previous post suggested, just get a Pentax mono DSLR. But here's the problem -- even after buying that mono-only camera, you won't be able to tell a difference from a normal DSLR. And whoever views your images certainly won't either. Maybe if you are making very large 30" x 40" prints? I just don't know.

Remember, without the Bayer color grid the camera doesn't have to interpolate with data from adjacent pixels, so the images are generally sharper than images made with a color sensor. Whether most people can see the difference is up for debate, but I'm sure many can without being able to point out why.

Further -- I also don't know if a mono DSLR's RAW B/W images contain editable color info... like if you wanted to darken anything blue, to make the sky more dramatic, while leaving the other colors unchanged. Anybody know about this?

Without a Bayer filter there will be no color data at all.

 

[Just-Visiting]

I had my Canon M6 converted to full spectrum recently and am very pleased with the BW capabilities, and this is wothout even using a specific filter.

I use any combination of Canon DPP, Affinity, and Snapseed to 'finish' the images.