This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of using instantaneous multichannel two-dimensional (2D) imaging to achieve instantaneous 2D imaging spectroscopy. A simulated multiple-filter mosaic was introduced and used to acquire multichannel data which were transformed into spectra. The feasibility of two different transformation approaches (the concrete pseudoinverse approach and a statistical approach) was investigated through extensive experimental tasks. A promising statistical method was identified to be used for accurate estimation of spectra from multichannel data. Comparison between estimated and measured spectra shows that higher estimation accuracy can be achieved when using a larger number of usable multiple-filter combinations in the mosaic. Key words. imaging spectroscopy, multiple color filters, color mosaics, sensitivity analysis, singular value decomposition, pseudoinverse, spectral estimation AMS subject classifications. 15-XX, 15Axx DOI. 10.1137/080743275