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Comment by devindotcom | Hacker News Reader

More weird panels, please! I still want a bare-bones monochrome laptop.

> I still want a bare-bones monochrome laptop.

That's not a bad idea, from both a cost and power standpoint. I wonder why nobody has done it?

Same thing with digital cameras. There is a good use case for a grey scale image sensor. Higher sensitivity, fewer artifacts, lower power. But, sadly, nobody has built an affordable one yet. Sure it's not a large market, but there are hundreds of cameras that are almost identical, why doesn't somebody dare to do something different?

I have always longed for an affordable BW digital camera. No Bayer filters!

There are various after-market places that will modify your camera to take black and white photos[0]. Considering how well loved black and white film is, and how many people running the industry have their roots in film, I am sure this idea has been looked at. However, the economics of camera making are really harsh. If you look at the numbers in the 'mirrorless' camera segment (a change from the SLR form-factor with wider appeal than a B&W-only camera), you can see how dangerous R&D spending can be.[1]

[0] https://www.maxmax.com/b&w_conversion.htm [1] http://www.43rumors.com/january-shipment-report-dslr-crash-m...

Leica makes the M Monochrom:

http://us.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-M/Leica-M-Monoc...

There are a few good use cases, I think:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/31/256-shades-of-grey/

Searching DP Review, I see I can buy that camera for $7,950 on Amazon. More recently Leica introduced the Leica M Edition 60 rangefinder with interchangeable lenses. It's on Amazon for $895.

It's a somewhat apples-and-oranges comparison, but maybe that's the price you need to pay for such a niche camera.

Actually the Ed 60 costs even more than the Monochrom. You're not going to get a red dot on anything for less than a grand, though some of the ones that are rebadged Panasonics can be got cheap (though they're never worth the money).

It's pretty much out of the question, alas....

Heh, the B&W RED camera costs more than the color version, and people still buy it.

I've seen zilch available in the consumer space, though.

There are greyscale monitors. These tend to be very expensive and used for medical imaging. I've never used one.

http://www.necdisplay.com/category/medical-diagnostic-displa...

http://www.necdisplay.com/p/medical-diagnostic-displays/md21...

We have a workstation with 4 EIZO monochrome medical monitors at work (to test radiology software ofc) and the resolution is astounding as is the 10-bit greyscale image. The price tag however, well, it's the greater than the sum of all the other monitors we have...

Why are these so expensive? You could get a top-of-the-line new 5k iMac for that greyscale 2048 x 2560 monitor. Presumably it's all the calibration and certification that goes in, but wow those are pricey.

These typically have many bits of grey and a calibrated response curve that is stable over time. Specialty stuff.

The linked greyscale monitor above only had 8-bit greyscale, but describes it as "256 levels of gray out of a palette of 3826". Does that mean anything significant?

Yes, it means the monitor has an 8-bit host interface but each value on the range [0,256) is mapped to a range of levels [0,3826) that the panel can actually produce. The number seems weird, I'm not sure why it would be 3826. Maybe someone can explain.

Because insurance is paying for it anyway, so why not develop unnecessary specialty stuff that uses all proprietary connectors, power supplies, etc.

Economies of scale.

It's not quite what you're looking for, but the Kindle Paperwhite will apparently pair with a Bluetooth keyboard.

EDIT: Better choice: The OLPC lets you turn off the screen backlight and that gets you a grayscale display that works even under direct sunlight.

Yeah, I thought about those. The OLPC is just too weird and outdated TBH, and e-paper devices (as much as I love them) are not reactive enough for active use like writing and editing. There's just no real option for now.

So what exactly is your goal? If you don't want anything that has advantages over a typical color LCD, then use driver settings to make it grayscale. Is that a 'fake' option?

sorry, a little late to respond, but no, that doesn't quite fit the bill. A native-monochrome LCD would actually have advantages over color LCDs because you have reduced bits per pixel, need less power per pixel, and actually increase the number of addressable pixels. E-paper displays are great for reading from but not good for interacting with in any active way. Pixel Qi is an interesting medium but I'm not sure it's quite there yet?

I was discussing monitors with a colleague today, and we speculated that what we wanted was an e-ink monitor - not a laptop, just a monitor. Use a conventional flat panel for the main screen, but have one or two e-ink screens off to the side for documentation etc.

I would love to have an e-ink whiteboard type thing that I could just leave up all the time without worrying about power consumption. I'd say maybe the top third would be for calendar events/digital todo lists that sync automatically, and the bottom 2/3 would be a writing surface that would capture and sync its contents as well. It'd be amazing. I have a 10" Android tablet with Wacom digitizer which I do use a lot for brainstorming so that I have everything digitized, but I'd really like a bigger surface that I can leave on all the time.

You might be interested in the Boogie Board Sync. Kind of ugly looking but might fit your needs for a handy digital whiteboard that syncs up.

That's pretty cool. Learn more about the Kindle Paperwhite at http://www.ereadercomparison.co/

The SOL Vision monitor [1] is currently the only affordable screen in that regard (without hacking). It's specifically built for outdoor applications and has HDMI, VGA, and RCA/AV input, but unfortunately it’s limited to 1024 by 768 pixels.

[1]: http://www.solcomputer.com/sunlight-readable/sol-vision-moni...

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