What is the best Core Image filter to produce black and white effects?

Question

I am using Core Image and would like to produce a black and white effect on the chosen image.

Ideally I would like to have access to the same sort of options that a

Answer 1

Here is the top rated solution converted to Swift (iOS 7 and above):

func blackAndWhiteImage(image: UIImage) -> UIImage {
    let context = CIContext(options: nil)
    let ciImage = CoreImage.CIImage(image: image)!

    // Set image color to b/w
    let bwFilter = CIFilter(name: "CIColorControls")!
    bwFilter.setValuesForKeysWithDictionary([kCIInputImageKey:ciImage, kCIInputBrightnessKey:NSNumber(float: 0.0), kCIInputContrastKey:NSNumber(float: 1.1), kCIInputSaturationKey:NSNumber(float: 0.0)])
    let bwFilterOutput = (bwFilter.outputImage)!

    // Adjust exposure
    let exposureFilter = CIFilter(name: "CIExposureAdjust")!
    exposureFilter.setValuesForKeysWithDictionary([kCIInputImageKey:bwFilterOutput, kCIInputEVKey:NSNumber(float: 0.7)])
    let exposureFilterOutput = (exposureFilter.outputImage)!

    // Create UIImage from context
    let bwCGIImage = context.createCGImage(exposureFilterOutput, fromRect: ciImage.extent)
    let resultImage = UIImage(CGImage: bwCGIImage, scale: 1.0, orientation: image.imageOrientation)

    return resultImage
}