This is an interesting item - Ikonoskop, the folks behind the A-Cam dII (a raw shooting HD camera previously covered) recently announced a black and white version - the A-Cam dII Panchromatic. By using a monochrome sensor, it aims to give folks looking for great black and white footage a new option with "an amazing range of gradations". Want to see some sample footage? Check this out:
There aren't many details at this point, beyond the aforementioned sensor, and the ability to shoot raw TIFF sequences. But I'd really like to find out just what kind of advantage having a monochrome sensor provides (and whether it's a different sensor from the standard A-Cam dII or just a question of reading the information gathered by the same sensor differently). The footage looks pretty cool, but it's hard to tell how different it would be from say, desaturating and processing footage from your Scarlet or FS100.
Personally, I think there's a place for black and white cinema, and if this camera delivers an image that is qualitatively better than what you can achieve through a normal color camera that has been processed in post, I can see it having a nice (if specialized) market. Also, it would be great if this model were cheaper than the A-Cam dII (which will run you just north of $10,000 (€ 7 700)) - but I guess we'll have to wait and see!
For the official announcement, go here. What do you think? Does Ikonoskop have an interesting tool here? Or will it just be a curiosity? Do you like shooting in black and white?
[via Cinescopophilia]
