Long shot: Undo In-camera black and white color setting?

[Jessieh04]

My neighbor who knows nothing about photography (you'll see in just a moment) just got back from a 5 week trip to Europe but had her canon point and shoot on color accent so all her photos are black and white. I never use any in-camera processing so I wanted to ask if there a program or anything that can recover those color files. I don't even know the process for which cameras store the info, I am sure it is a long shot. My best guess is the original can not be recovered, but I promised her I'd ask at a forum.

Thanks guys!

[BlueRob]

AFAIK if she took the photos on B&W the camera translated all the color to a monotone image so I assume there is no color to recover.
More experienced users will confirm this...or...enlighten me also.

[n8]

I would guess no. The camera shoots, then converts to jpeg according to the settings. done. this is why you (they) learn their equipment, even if it is a p&s.

[OldClicker]

Some P&S cameras shoot RAW - any chance that they are RAW? - TF

[Medley]

Some P&S cameras shoot RAW - any chance that they are RAW? - TF

My thought exactly. If they're Raw images, then you can recover the color. If they're jpegs, then I'm afraid the answer is no.

- Joe.

[California L33]

My neighbor who knows nothing about photography (you'll see in just a moment) just got back from a 5 week trip to Europe but had her canon point and shoot on color accent so all her photos are black and white. I never use any in-camera processing so I wanted to ask if there a program or anything that can recover those color files. I don't even know the process for which cameras store the info, I am sure it is a long shot. My best guess is the original can not be recovered, but I promised her I'd ask at a forum.

Thanks guys!

As others have said, if it shot RAW, and recorded RAW (usually an option) then she might be OK. The bad news is that the only Canon P&S cameras that could record RAW out of the box were the G series (I think), not usually sold to beginners. Others could do it through the hacked CHDK software, but you've got to be a camera nerd to be using that.