Digital cameras dedicated specifically to capturing black-and-white photographs are rare birds. With the exception of the recently released Leica M10 Monochrom, its predecessors—the Leica Monochrom M (2012) and Leica Monochrom M Typ 246 (2015)—and a small handful of other niche cameras, one other digital camera stands out in the black-and-white market: the Kodak DCS 760M, which made its debut in 2001.
It’s important to keep in mind that 2001 was still part of the early days of digital imaging, and many photographers still considered digital as being inferior to film, which for the most part was true. Kodak’s DCS 760M was Kodak’s top-of-the-line DSLR at the time. It was based on the Kodak DCS 760, which was a Nikon F5 film camera modified with a 6.3MP (2008 x 3032) Kodak APS-H CCD imaging sensor, which was one of the largest imaging sensors available at the time. The sensitivity range for the DCS 760 was ISO 80 to 400, but the image quality was notably better at the lowest ISO values. Kodak’s DCS 760 was able to capture what, at the time, were considered the highest-quality digital color files at up to 1.5 frames per second.
The DCS 760M differed from the DCS 760 in that instead of capturing color files (with a GRBG color filter array), it only captured luminance values, which translates to a monochrome image. The advantages of this arrangement, as with Leica’s current 40MP M10 Monochrom, is that unlike sensors with a color filter array, each and every pixel in the DCS 760M records luminance, and the resulting black-and-white images are noticeably sharper and contain none of the chromatic aberrations that are part and parcel of RGB imaging.
The sensitivity range of the 760M was also higher than the ISO 80 to 400 range of the 760M’s color counterpart, the 760, which added to the exposure flexibility, compared to the color camera and ability to work in lower light. Like many of the professional mirrorless and DSLR cameras available today, the 760M featured dual card slots, which could handle two Type I/II PC cards at a time, or one Type III PC card, or CompactFlash Type I/II cards if you used a PCMCIA adapter.
In addition to not having to divvy up the pixels to capture full-color photographs, another reason for the lush tonality of photographs captured with the 760 and 760M had to do with the relatively large pixel size (9 x 9 µm) of the camera sensor. In addition to being physically large, the pixels were also square, which enabled Kodak’s engineers to minimize the gaps between the rows and columns of pixels, which increased the sensor’s level of resolving power.
I was fortunate enough to attend a factory training with the camera when it was introduced, in early 2001, and was able to borrow a camera for a week afterward. Being a Nikon shooter at the time, I had lenses ranging from 15 to 500mm, and I put most of them to good use that week.
Considering the camera was “only” 6.3MP, the image quality was astounding. I was able to effortlessly produce 13 x 19" prints from the camera’s 18MB TIFF files, and several were printed at 16 x 20" with little, if any, loss of image quality or visible graininess. If I had a larger printer, I’m sure I could have scaled the files up further. The pictures had a glow about them that I hadn’t seen before in a black-and-white digital print.
At the turn of the millennium, Kodak was at the top of its game. The film market was still vibrantly strong, and Kodak’s Digital Camera Science (DCS) division was making huge advances in imaging technologies on a regular basis. In addition to its unbeatable line of DCS-series DSLRs, Kodak was also instrumental in advancing medium-format digital back technologies. While other manufacturers were streamlining the battery packs and storage devices for their medium-format backs, Kodak introduced the DCS Pro Back, which used camcorder batteries, had a built-in LCD for instant playback, and like the DCS 760 and 760M, it accepted IBM Microdrives, which are the ancestors of the very same CF-format memory cards we use today.
Kodak’s DCS 760-series cameras and medium-format Pro Backs were unfortunately the end of the line for the company’s leadership in the industry. In a bid to maximize the financial gains of their technological efforts, the company began to license their state-of-the-art hardware and digital imaging technologies aggressively to their competitors, which while profitable in the short term, ultimately led to Kodak’s demise because its competitors tweaked and improved Kodak’s hardware and software, and all but ate Kodak’s lunch.
Kodak’s follow-up camera, the DCS 14n, was Kodak’s first full-frame DSLR, as well as its last. Though full-frame, because of supply shortages from camera manufacturers who were also busy trying to gain a foothold in the digital camera market, Kodak was forced to use a Nikon N60 consumer-level film camera as a camera body, which was woefully not up to the task in terms of durability or functionality. Around the same time, Canon, Nikon, and other manufacturers began entering the DSLR market, and Kodak’s fate was all but sealed.
Do you own a classic camera—digital or film—that you’re still fond of? Tell us about it in the Comments field below—we’d love to hear about it.
