[Leica] Hypothetical... M10 B+W.. Would you buy one?

[tgray at 125px.com (Tim Gray)]

On Apr 03, 2012 at 09:56 AM -0700, Kay Yang wrote:
>The biggest question I have is that, if such a camera was made, would it
>have only one look or would it have a list of "films" for you to choose
>from to get different looks?

In my mind, the look of B&W films  primarily comes from three things: 
spectral sensitivity, characteristic curve (contrast if you will), and 
grain.  Sharpness is a function of grain, or at least very intertwined 
with it.

Digital sensors have the grain/sharpness issue essentially fixed by 
pixel count and distribution.  Likewise, the characteristic curve is 
essentially baked into the sensor.  Spectral sensitivity is determined 
by chip itself and the filters in front it; don't see any real way of 
changing that on the fly if it's a monochrome sensor.

So I would think, no, you wouldn't have a choice of looks in camera.  
The RAW file would look like the RAW file - end of story.  Unless they 
did grain simulations or something to the jpegs the camera produced, but 
that can easily be done at home on the RAWs.  Same goes for the tone 
curve.  You could always throw a colored filter on in front of the lens 
if you wanted a different spectral sensitivity.

In the end, it would be like shooting with a very high resolution and 
low grained film, probably with typical panchromatic spectral 
sensitivity (think Tri-X, T-Max, Delta, etc.), not exactly like any of 
those but not dramatically different.  And it would have changeable ISO 
speeds.  Any 'look' that you'd want to achieve would be done in post.

Lastly, there's always the possibility that a company might let the 
final camera have an extended IR range or something like it, with a 
removable filter (probably in front of the lens) to give you 
panchromatic spectral sensitivity.

But who knows.  It all depends on how they might spec the camera, if 
they actually do it.  And it's not clear that they will actually do it.