I wanted to finally take some informal BW of the kids today - but I was unable to figure out how to set my D50 to take a BW. :confused:

I know I can convert after the fact, but I thought it was better to take the original in BW. I've searched the manual and the menu on the camera with no luck.

Any insights?

Unfortunately, the D50 doesn't shoot in B&W.

You'll have a lot more control by shooting in color and converting to B&W later in Photoshop, etc. Check the Digital Imaging forum for instructions on how to do this.

converting to bw works fine....

Unfortunately, the D50 doesn't shoot in B&W.
Bummer.

I did take some in color and they look pretty good - I'm heading over to the digital imaging forum to check out how to best edit to BW.

Thanks all.

I wanted to finally take some informal BW of the kids today - but I was unable to figure out how to set my D50 to take a BW. :confused:

I know I can convert after the fact, but I thought it was better to take the original in BW. I've searched the manual and the menu on the camera with no luck.

Any insights?

Shoot RAW and use Nikon Capture to convert it to black and white. The latest version has a contrast control and channel mixer to allow full control. This is much better that letting the camera do it itself - which the D50/D70/D70s can't but the D200 can.

Charles

Bummer.

I did take some in color and they look pretty good - I'm heading over to the digital imaging forum to check out how to best edit to BW.

Thanks all.

Yea, I was bummed too when I got my D50 a few weeks ago and couldn't find the B&W switch =P It's still a great camera nonetheless. Hope you enjoy it :)

I know my Fuji S2 will shoot in black and white, but not sure about the Coolpix that I've had for almost four years. I never shoot this way for a couple of reasons:

You may want a color original at some point, and obviously won't have it - but can convert a copy to greyscale with a couple of clicks in Photoshop. Cameras that shoot in B&W shoot greyscale and the images can end up looking very flat.

Sebastian posted some shots that he just did a greyscale conversion to, then put in an "S" curve in Photoshop and they looked great. There was a Viewfinder thread about a month or so ago... This procedure would just take a few seconds in Photoshop if you're familiar with that program. Another option is converting an image in Photoshop (or Capture, I guess) using the channel mixer which will usually give you much better and controllable results, again in just a few seconds.

Have you been to an art museum and seen incredible old black and white prints? Usually they're not "straight prints" - they've had some darkroom magic applied to them. Ansel Adams was a master at this. Think of shooting greyscale as a straight print, and doing the conversion later (with some practice, of course) as a custom print.

Thanks all. I've been converting in the Nikon Picture Project that came with the camera. I'm sure the Capture has even more control, but it's on a wait list due to cost (1st of 3 kids heading to college this fall - gotta start saving the pennies!).

I look forward to becoming an editing expert in the coming years!