What is the best Digital SLR camera to buy to take black and white photos?

all DSLR's (well, except the Sigma's) work in the same way. They have little color filters over the pixels, and put them together mathematically to extract total color and luminosity levels for the image. So- they all take color photos in the same way.

The short answer is to get whatever DSLR floats your boat (and price range), and then learn the nuances of B&W image post processing to get just the look you want. There are many ways to work in photoshop and carefully create layers and adjust levels to generate amazing B&W looks.

Just for fun, check out the 'Filtered B&W' function in Picasa2 (a free download from google). You'll see how different a B&W image can look, just by color filtering it before conversion. For instance, a red-filtered B&W image will make a blue sky look darker, as there is very little Red in a Blue sky. There are some cameras that can apply these filters to the image before it is saved as a B&W jpeg (like my Minolta A2), but mostly, this is better left to post processing.

the nikon d80 is nice.
try this website if you want more info.

http://www.steves-digicams.com

there are many of them from Canon and Nikon...

I have taken black and white with the Canon EOS-1Ds and the Nikon D200 and D2x

...these cameras are pretty good! ;p

Almost any will work fine. Some cameras even have the option of taking B&W. If not, it is a simple matter in a picture program to change to B&W or even sepia.

Norm

there are many.. i am right now using canon is2..good for black and white and there are many mode ..
its excellent ..b&w are aavaililabe in almost all good camera so first decide your budget and then follow the cam