Ikonoskop B&W version

A black and white only camera? That will really narrow its practical use.
The b&w images from the Ikonoskop camera are beautiful, but all of my clients want color.

No word on the cost yet, but it is intriguing.
 
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Is there a huge difference when shooting black and white as opposed to shooting colour and changing in post?

Do you get more out of the sensor?
 
Interesting.

Time to dust off our red filters?

Hopefully the price isn't ridiculous.
 
vanvideo said:
The b&w images from the Ikonoskop camera are beautiful, but all of my clients want color.
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Your clients want color. HDSLR clients want audio. What is with all these needy clients?!

What are they going to ask for next? Their footage to be in focus? Haven't they seen that the DSLR revolution means it isn't cool if it isn't in focus.
 
manakiin said:
Much better resolution, better dynamic range / tonality.
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I'm not saying that's not true but from the sample footage posted I couldn't discern anything special...certainly nothing markedly different than what could already be accomplished with the color sensor A-Cam in post. Maybe Vimeo ate all the benefits, but even then, even on the internet, the differences should be apparent, otherwise a digital B&W sensor amounts to little more than "hipster cred" (imo).

themagickite said:
it's $500 more than the standard version
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lol
 
arroway said:
I'm not saying that's not true but from the sample footage posted I couldn't discern anything special...certainly nothing markedly different than what could already be accomplished with the color sensor A-Cam in post
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I could be completely wrong but I'm assuming that footage didn't have any post work done on it...
The camera records footage as a series of TIFF files, which means it could/should record 16-bit grayscale images.
True, you could probably get similar results by working on colour footage, but if you spend the same amount of time working on these already black and white images, I'm guessing you could go really far with it.
 
Jay Birch said:
Is there a huge difference when shooting black and white as opposed to shooting colour and changing in post?

Do you get more out of the sensor?
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The issue is that once you record in grey scale you can't ever recover the color information. And that information can be very useful for creating unique looks when converting color to B&W. If you don't have color information then there is no way to distinguish between different colors with the same intensity. And forget about trying pull keys.

For example, if you are recording B&W, pure red (255, 0, 0) will look exactly the same as pure green (0, 255, 0) if they are the same intensity.


P.S. Well this is a simplifiction, as silicon has different sensitivities to different wavelenghts of light. Nonetheless, there will be still be situations where different colors will be registered by the sensor as the same shade of grey.
 
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BobbyMurcerFan said:
For example, if you are recording B&W, pure red (255, 0, 0) will look exactly the same as pure green (0, 255, 0) if they are the same intensity.
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Hmmm....that's funny....I opened Photoshop and drew some red(255,0,0),green(0,255,0) and blue(0,0,255) lines.
I converted the image to greyscale and I obtained different shades of grey: (127,127,127),(220,220,220),(76,76,76).
How does this conversion work?
 
rgb or yuv are calculated with weighted color, meaning each color use a different coefficientin the formula.
so, it is right to say that a shade of color will look exactly the same as another shade of color when converted to grey, but
it is wrong to assume that from RGB or YUV values, even not considering color space that can add to complexity.

But it is wel known that prehistoric cinema (B&W) was using such trick to get better color. In "gone with the wind", costumes, sets, and make-up where totally different color than what they should be (like using purple ,violet or green fabric in costume).
for example, it is somtime easier to get a nice black using red than usin black fabric.
That is also why some photos taken on set shows costumes or make-up with really funny color.
 
Convert color to black and white, and you have color channels to work with in order to adjust tonalities. However: Black and white native might be well designed around other spectral sensitivities conducive to B&W classic filtering, skin tones, noise quality, panchromatic emulsion type responses ... One could always tell when color film was used for black and white releases, skin tones were dead. Flat. Pasty. Overworked. But that was film. If Ikonokop can provide for the quality of the best B&W emulsions then I am all over that. There is a lot to be said for working in the intended space from the start, rather than probing later. I know panchromatic better than the back of my hand. Each to their own.
 
Eventually we will be able to do away with color filter arrays and extract full resolution color spectrum from panchromatic sensors with Fourier transform analysis, like we do now with audio spectrum analyzers. It will take a fundamentally different pixel design though, one that can capture modulated wavelengths of light the way a microphone does with sound.
 
it would be a much better, faster, potentially clearer and more sensitive image to preview.

you would be able to judge the B&W image in its starting point much easier, and it would be much better than anything that can be done in post after the fact.
 
kittykatro said:
Hmmm....that's funny....I opened Photoshop and drew some red(255,0,0),green(0,255,0) and blue(0,0,255) lines.
I converted the image to greyscale and I obtained different shades of grey: (127,127,127),(220,220,220),(76,76,76).
How does this conversion work?
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That's a great test ;). And what it shows is that Photoshop weights G, R and B vaues in that order. This is b/c the human eye is most sensitive to green, then red and then blue.

But a sensor with no colored filter array will weight according to the sensitivity of silicon. I believe silicon is most sensitive to red, then green and finally blue. You may get some very cool looks. But those are mostly going to be altered by placing colored filters in front of the lens and baking the look in b/c you can't manipulate color channels in post when you record in black and white.
 
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