I don’t think there is a camera that is better for black and white… at the Art Institute we’ve been taught that it’s always better to shoot in color, then convert to black and white in Photoshop. Canons are great… I use the Canon Rebel XTi and I love it… but if your wife already has Nikon equipment (lens, flash, etc.) then it may be better to stick with Nikon.

8×10 view camera for very serious work
4×5 for less serious
120/220 format film for less
35mm for worst

The above is from a purist standpoint.

From my standpoint, my Cannon A640, 10mp point and shoot.
Adobe photoshop.

Examples of my work can be found at my web site

Source
age 57
first camera when I was 5
Pro photographer for a decade
ended up hating it.
3 one man shows, all in black and white
Archived prints stored at the national archives

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Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated

Confucius
551 – 479 BC
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Peace

Jim

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IMO though B&W can be achived with digital I still prefer the look of ilford shot with an SLR

There is no camera specially suited to B&W over any other (except film, of course), first of all. Second, if she shoots nikon, it’s a better idea to stick with nikon as it would not make any sense to buy all new equipment.

Get and learn photoshop, preferably CS3 (as it has very nice B&W conversion tools), and you’ll have great B&W no matter what camera you shoot with.

Chris is spot on. It is important to shoot raw and who ever told you that Canon was better for B&W was surely joking. Why not, however, try a Nikon F4/F5. They really are cheap and with the addition of some chemicals at home you can develop your own genuine b&w film. You don’t need a dark room. Add a film scanner for proofs and send your final shots off for a drum scan. The quality far outstrips digital and the total cost up front would be about $600. It then is a pay as you process from there on.

I shoot a D200, D3, F4, F5 and Hasselblad m/f and my preference is real b&w.

All the best
Tom

Stick with the Nikon, there really is NO difference. Shoot in Raw and in colour and convert to B&W in Photoshop.

To show you just how good your Nikon is at B&W try this.

There are lots of ways to do B&W conversion in Photoshop, CS3 has a really good conversion tool. Heres one to try if you don’t have CS3

Open your colour pic in 16bit mode and rename it ‘Subject’.

Open 2 Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layers, rename the middle on ‘Filter’ and the top one ‘Film’

On the ‘Film’ layer just push the Saturation slider all the way to the left (B&W). This simulates your B&W film.

On the Filter Layer select Color as the Blend Mode, by moving the Hue slider you can simulate the effects of Red, Blue, Green or Yellow filters etc. Look for good detail in both Highlights and Shadows.

When your happy go to Layer>Flatten Image.

Whichever way you have converted to B&W, now for the fun part. Using the Lasso Tool do a rough selection on lets say the Sky and feather heavily, pull up a Levels Adjustment Layer which will automatically apply a mask with your selection, now go to town with the Black/White and Gamma sliders, and watch those clouds take on form.

Do the same with middle distance and foreground, and any detail you want to enhance (such as a building).

The idea behind opening it up as a 16bit file is you can really ‘pull the image to pieces’ and still get beautiful graduated tones.

You can select, feather and use a Curves Adjustment Layer to increase (or decrease) contrast on specific areas of your image. You can even use a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, remember it’s still a colour file underneath, and have a Red filter on the sky a Blue filter on the foliage etc.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how good your camera is at recording detail, particularly in the ‘Darks’ by this method.

Don’t forget to rename your layers ‘Sky’, ‘Middle Distance’, ‘Foreground’ etc otherwise you soon loose track of what layer effect what.

Another tip is to save as a Psd and come back to it with a fresh eye from time to time.

Be warned this technique is Very addictive, you can make the same image ’soft and dreamy’ or really ‘Gothic’, it’s up to you.

Enjoy, Chris

I believe in trying out new things, so I say if she WANTS to try the Canon she should go for it (as long as she can afford it). Although I love Canon, if she is low of cash and she really loves Nikon, she should stick with what she has. Both make some great cameras.

If she already has Nikon equipment then why NOT stick with the NIKON? The old lenses still work with the new cameras.. If they are manual she will still have to use them in the manual mode ! As for the black n white aspect the camera is only as good as the person behind it !

I’ve never used digital for black and white I would imagine that the printing process would play a bigger part than the camera.. Some stores use color paper for blk/wht. printing. So you may have to ask for samples to see ! This would cause more of a ’sepia type color as opossed to blk/wht. I would just inquire of the lab if you weren’t printing them yourself…

Good luck