General Question:

Without going back through 27 pages to see if it's already been asked and answered, Why are we talking only about conversion to B&W?

I don't use a DSLR but most of you do, and while I'm not certain, I believe most if not all DSLR's have an option to shoot only in monochrome. My compact P7800 has a monochrome option under "special effects." Most of it is pretty out there, auto solarization, choices of grain &c, but it is possible to set the thing to shoot in straight-up black-and-white, producing jpegs (won't do it in raw). I never do it, because I'm now strictly a color shooter and only rarely make a conversion. I spent my whole working career wishing there was a better way to convert color to B&W than that godawful Kodak Panalure garbage. You had to work in total darkness (panchromatic paper), and the results were always muddy anyway; the stuff was awful, and only used when you had to send a B&W print to the newspaper for halftoning. I never again want to wish I'd shot something in color but didn't. :shock:

But if you really want to learn to "think" and "see" in B&W terms, one way to do it would be to restrict yourself to monochrome in the camera. I used to shoot practically everything in B&W so I could process and print it myself. Whether I "thought" in B&W I'm not sure, but I guess I did because that was what was loaded. If you force yourself to shoot in B&W, nowadays you can "chimp" and see right away if something works or not. You can even switch to live view to see it before tripping the shutter. Just a thought... :-D

I have both a DF and D750, I regularly use and like both of them. On a completely subjective basis, the DF takes more colorful and attractive images for me, and I trust it more. In low light, the DF is superior. The manual controls are very simple to use and reduce menu use. With practice, all of the controls can easily be manipulated with one hand. Battery usage -- they are small and cheap -- I carry three. I have never had one run out because I switch before it becomes necessary. One card slot? Who cares -- I have never had one fail and I will never fill a 32, never mind a 64 -- cards are small as well, and I carry spares. Most of the long list of the DF's "lacks" are actually benefits. I will never take a movie, I hate touch screens, the swing out screen, hardly used,etc., etc. I have a pile of old Nikon glass which I use with both cameras. In terms of handling, size and attractiveness for me the DF wins by a mile. I don't regret picking up the used D 750, but though there are a list of advantages on paper, nearly all have been irrelevant or useless to me. If / when Nikon comes out with a DF 2, provided they don't add a lot of nonsense features, the D 750 will be on the block and I'll buy one.