RE: filmscanners: film vs. digital cameras - wedding/commercial photography

["Austin Franklin" <darkroom@ix.netcom.com>]

> > From: Austin Franklin <darkroom@ix.netcom.com>
> > > > "...The digital camera gives you only 6M*8bit/channel=6Mbytes..."
> > > > 6Mpixels *8bits/channel *3channels = 144Mbytes. This assumes 3
> > bytes/pixel
> > > > it may be higher if bit deepth per channel is greater than 8.
> > > > Bob Wright
> > >
> > > Er, no.  That would be 144M BITS, not bytes, which is 24M Bytes...
> > >
> > Mea coupa! But still greater than 6 Mbytes.
>
> Again, the 24Mbytes(@8bit/channel) are INTERPOLATED. The camera (S1,
> D1x) only captures 1 channel (not 3) for each pixel!!!! But that's it.
> I won't repeat it again.
>
> Robert

You can repeat it all you like, but what you say is not entirely accurate.
The "data" is two dimensional.  Each pixel has position (an XY coordinate)
as one dimension and color information as the other.

Interpolation requires the addition of new data points, like when a scanner
that has an optical resolution of 1200 DPI gives you 2400 DPI.  That is
interpolation of positional data.  Interpolation means to "insert" between
other elements.

Each of the 6M sensor IS seeing a different piece of the reflected
image...the sensors do not overlap.  In the case we are discussing, the
cameras 6M pixel sensor gives you 6M entirely different "positions" of the
image (providing the lense can resolve to at least 2x the sensor resolution
that is...).  No data has been inserted between other elements.

Though the data points are not interpolated, the color value of each point
MAY be arrived at by interpolation, if the algorithm uses interpolation. It
is not necessary to use interpolation to arrive at the color information for
each pixel.  You could take the four color values, combine them and apply
them to each of the four pixels...that isn't interpolating.