[filmscanners] Re: Digi, film and scanning in movies

["Brentley Beerline" <yeltnerb@pacbell.net>]

The Foveon chip has some technical shortcomings right
now which is a possible reason that it is not widely
adopted.

1.  Poor ISO performance right now it is 100-400 ISO.
2.  Bad multiplier 1.7x.  Which means that your widest
lens is like a 30.
3.  Image aberations, artifacts etc. that increase
toward the edge of the frame.  Their software does a
decent job at correcting this, but it is easy to
demonstrate.

Foveon does have some things in their favor
1.  Decent funding
2.  Interesting technology (although the fact that
they have three layers of sensors will make true wide
angle very very hard).

As for working with other companies, I know for a fact
that they have relationships with all of the major
players in the industry and would love to have another
manufacturer work with their technology.

--- Arthur Entlich <artistic-1@shaw.ca> wrote:
> Well, I have been saying this for years, although I
> think the G3 and its
> predecessors are some of the best non-SLR digital
> cameras on the market,
> they have their shortcomings.  One thing to remember
> is that the actual
> resolution of the chip in terms of the color, is
> considerably less than
> the the stated 4 MP.  Every color digicam except the
> Sigma uses Bayer
> interpolation pattern, as I am sure you know.   That
> means the color is
> interpolated in literally every pixel, for two color
> elements based upon
> its closest neighbor.  There are 25% R and B and 50%
> G color separating
> CCD sensors in the chip.  So, although the
> luminosity is relatively
> accurate for the image, the color information is
> still a lot of guesswork.
>
> I am a great supporter of the Foveon technology,
> although for some
> reason, and I believe it to be internal industrial
> politics, it has not
> caught on.  Take a look at reviews and comparisons
> of the Foveon chip to
> standard equivalent CCDs using the Bayer
> interpolation grid.  The Foveon
> wasn't perfectly implemented by Sigma, but keep in
> mind it was their
> very first digital camera, also.  I suspect no other
> digicam company was
> willing to "offend" Sony or Kodak who supply the
> vast majority of the
> CCD chips for digital cameras.  I really "wonder out
> loud" if the
> digicam companies weren't warned that if they used
> the Foveon that might
> have some supply problems with the normal channels
> they use.  Otherwise
> I really can understand the unwillingness of other
> companies to use the
> chip, which supplies superior results in most areas.

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