Black and White or Color

[Treasuredude]

I have the FZ3. I have a bit of a weird question. I am interested in taking some black and white photos. Is there a difference in shooting in black and white as opposed to shooting in color and changing it to black and white in the software?

[pixelator]

And then to change it in Photoshop to w/b. In this way you have the two posibilities :color and w/b to choose.
The magazine Popular Photography of May includes an article about the best way to change from color to w/b