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

["David J. Littleboy" <davidjl@gol.com>]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you read my comments fully, you see that I concede that
the Foveon chip in its current format, is probably best suited to
mid-level consumer cameras, which, by the way, are exactly the ones
which this thread started about, (The Canon G3).
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The Foveon sensor is much too large to fit in a consumer camera.

>>>>>>>>>>>>
  Frank Paris was
expressing his displeasure with the G3 and it's lack of full color
gradients in small things like tree branches which led to a flat look
rather than the rounded nature of the branch which was depicted on film.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The pixels in the consumer cameras are tiny, and the noise levels at any ISO
above the lowest are a major disaster.

>>>>>>>>>>>>
I stated that this may well be the result of the limited color
resolution provided by that camera in spite of its 4 MP image sensor,
<<<<<<<<<<<<

But Frank wrote: "Most of my shooting has
been performed indoors at ISO 50 of a Rose-breasted cockatoo, using my
Metz 60 CT-4 flash turned backwards and bouncing off the wall behind me.
I have gotten beautifully sharp images with wonderfully soft lighting of
my bird shooting this way."

Since he _is_ getting good images _some_ of the time, your theory here is
clearly quite wrong.

>>>>>>>>>>>>
and the fact that the G3 is considered one of the better consumer
cameras out there.  I believe one reason for this problem is the Bayer
filter pattern.
<<<<<<<<<<<<

The G3 images are just fine at ISO 50.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes, decent Bayer interpolation cameras are appearing in the lower price
ranges now, but it took years to get it there.
<<<<<<<<<<<<

Did it? People were very happy and had a lot of fun at the 2MP level. The
F707 makes lovely A4s at ISO 100.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>
WHo knows what the next
generation of Foveon color sensors will look like or cost.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

My problem with Foveon is the excessiveness of the hype combined with the
decision to not include an antialiasing filter. It looks like the intention
was to falsely claim "higher resolution" and then provide what look like
sharp images to fool people who don't understand sampling theory.

>>>>>>>>>>>
On the consumer digicam end, I still believe the Foveon chip will prove
to have advantages not easily corrected in lower priced Bayer systems.
<<<<<<<<<<<

You still haven't shown a problem to be solved. The 4 and 5MP cameras do
produce quite nice images at their lowest ISO, with luminance resolution at
about 70% of the Nyquist frequency. They're a disaster at higher ISO levels.
But the Foveon technology doesn't speak to the noise problem; it's noise
levels are roughly the same as the other dSLRs, which have smaller pixels.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan


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