Classic Camera Review: The Kodak DCS 760M

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.

Though a bit larger and certainly bulkier than modern DSLRs, Kodak’s DCS 760 and 760M closely resemble the professional DSLRs we use today.

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.