Q: How Is a Camera That Takes B&W Photos Helpful?

In my preview of the new Nikon D80 10 megapixel digital SLR, I mention that one of the improvements in this camera over other Nikon digital SLRs is its ability to take black and white photos.

This feature was lacking on all of the other Nikon cameras like the D50, D70 and D70s.

So what's the big deal here?

After all, virtually every image editing program out there will let you quickly convert any color photo to black and white with a few clicks of the mouse. So why would you want your digital SLR to take black and white photos in the first place?

There are two primary reasons:

1. The instant feedback that you get when you can see the photo in black and white on the LCD helps you improve your black and white photography (taking photos in B&W is very different from taking photos in color).
2. Simply extracting the color from a photo is NOT the same as what happens when you capture it originally in black and white. Take a look at any black and white conversion tutorial on the web and you'll find that for best results, you don't just remove all the color. If you don't want to spend hours at your computer, but still enjoy black and white photography, then a camera that takes photos in black and white is a real time-saver.