Glorious Black and White

[David Thrasher]

I've been thinking about shooting a movie with my camcorder in black and white and I had a few questions about some things. I own a Canon Elura IIMC which is a single-chip model and I'll be editing in iMovie. I wish I could afford a 3-chip camcorder but those are the breaks. 

For shooting black and white, am I going to get better results using the camcorder's black and white setting or shooting it in color and using iMovie to convert it? If I did have a 3-chip camcorder would there be a quality difference for black and white compared to a single ship model? I've been thinking I might be able to get around some of the quality limitations of a single-chip model by shooting in black and white (of course making films that would lend themselves to this format). 

Black and white is used so little these days, except for an effect, that people often tend to forget how good it could look. (Look at the cinematography in "Casablanca", for instance.) Even though I have a camcorder that would be classified as a "toy" by well-financed professionals, I'm going to treat it the same as if I did have totally professional equipment and light and plan the shots accordingly.