eli5 Why are some cameras able to capture color while others are just B&W?

Question

Please explain both film and digital

In: Technology

Answer 1

The camera doesn’t matter with film. If you put in B/W film, you get B/W pictures. If you put in color film, you get color pictures.

For digital cameras, you need 3 times more sensor elements to capture color. That means that if you need things to be super small or work at super low light levels, B/W might be a better solution. Lots of security cameras do this to reduce the storage space needed.