LTC8K6:
Just checked. It's not an actual starlight system, like the military. It is more than I thought, though
Military Nightvision actual takes in and amplifies available light, as well as picking up infrared (you can see TV remote beams with them). They can operate both passively (picking up and amplifying available light) and actively (using an IR light to illuminate the area being viewed).
Sony's system also increase near infrared, but does not have the amplification features of the military system. It either picks up available ambient light and NIR, or also has an infrared light source. I would suppose it is black and white because it uses the same CCD card as a regular, color photo, but my guess would be it simply adds the values picked up by each color layer/pixel of the CCD for better resolution.
For those that don't know, a CCD typically is arranged in squares of pixels. Pixel 1,1 will pick up red, 1,2 will pick up green, 2,1 picks up blue, etc. Each pixel picks up a single color, and these are combined in the camera. So, a black and white mode can greatly increase resolution, because you can treat each of these as additive rather than seperate (you just want brightness, not color), and resolve a brighter image.
Now, the last bit is just my guess, but makes sense in the world I've created in my head
My guess is that the green color of military systems is just because that's what they chose (my guess is it disturbs your regular night-vision less), not a requirement of the system. But the Nightshot is not quite at the same level as military starlight optics, although the same idea is behind it.
