Wow, this is like discussing what camera to use, or what lens. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I cut my teeth using B&W film. It had something to do with getting a 10,000 foot reel of B&W mapping film for free. It was ASA 2 high altitude mapping film used by the Air Force.

B&W photographs can emote strong mood in the viewer. While using that B&W film I was stationed in Misawa, Japan in winter. The barren snow covered mountains lent themselves to B&W. I used to process all my own film and prints. Sepia toning & blue toning were great with misty, foggy scenes.

Think of an artist. Would you limit a painter to just one medium, say oils? Let's keep and open mind about the creative process and just sit back & continue to be amazed at the beautiful images photographers create.

If you shoot in RAW, the camera does no processing to the image at all. You effectively get a pixel by pixel representation of what was on the sensor (well, after it's been through the camera's A/D, noise reduction and other pre processing that can not be turned off)

As Stanokella said, it is up to you to process the image to your requirements. If you use the Black and White mode on your camera, then it will start to make certain processing decsions for you, and they may not be what you want.

Ultimately, you should, if you want total control, always shoot in RAW, as then you can process the images with your own style. But if you are a beginner, or not familiar with RAW processing, then I would stick with what you know for now.

Alan.