[filmscanners] RE: Newish Digital Tech

["Austin Franklin" <austin@darkroom.com>]

Hi Paul,

> The point is that the more photons you capture, the less noise you get.

Hum.  Is that true?  I don’t know that I believe that.  What, exactly, do
you mean by noise?  Noise has MANY sources.

I believe the more accurate the number of photons you capture, the more
accurate your information.  Also, the more accurately you characterize the
loss, as well as the more repeatable it is, the more accurate your
information.  It also depends on the accuracy of your sensor.

But, let’s use what you say...the Bayer pattern CCDs has only ONE precision
color filter over each sensor...but the Foveon has up to THREE.  One would
reason, that by your claim, that the Bayer pattern sensors have, therefore,
less noise.  Right?

> Assuming the Foveon wastes the same percentage of its area on interconnect
> as a Bayer pattern chip,

Which I am not sure is a good assumption...

> the Bayer chip will filter out all the "wrong"
> color photons that hit each sensor, while the Foveon will
> actually use them.

Yes, but as I said, that, as far as I can tell, has downsides as well, and
in the overall “picture” (as in final image quality) is a so what.

> Obviously, implementation matters. But I see no reason to expect that a
> Bayer pattern chip is intrinsically better--it's just been worked
> on longer.

And I’m not saying it is or isn’t, and the reality of that issue is exactly
what I’m trying to understand.

Regards,

Austin

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