mromero
Premium
join:2000-12-07
Los Angeles, CA
1 edit | reply to pog
Re: Possible Pentax K20D sensor...
"What would be the advantage of such a sensor? Let's first compare it with a traditional one that has a single photo detector under the micro-lens (assuming the same size micro-lens). The proposed sensor would have 4x more photo detectors, allowing it to record a complete set of RGBY values per pixel. It would have better resolution due to the lack of an AA filter, but the larger number of photo detector would seem detrimental to noise and dynamic range.
How bad would the noise be? Let's look at luminance noise first. The traditional sensor would capture roughly 1/3 of the incoming photons due to the color filter (ignoring other factors such as the photo detector's quantum efficiency for now). The proposed sensor would capture more light (roughly 1/2 of the incoming photons) thanks to the luminance photo detector not having a color filter. On the other hand it would have more readout noise because the photons have to be read out from 4 separate photo detectors. To evaluate luminance noise, let's assume that all 4 values are simply added (more sophisticated algorithms might be able to do better).
This would cause some of the readout noise to cancel each other, with the total readout noise probably being around twice the amount for a single readout. So the proposed sensor would have twice the readout noise but a 50% stronger luminance signal, resulting in an relative noise increase of only 33%.
This does not sound too bad, especially since there would be no anti-aliasing filter. How much the AA filter costs in terms of resolution, and how much one gains by having per-pixel RGB values is hard to tell. However, based on what I gleaned in the Foveon vs. Bayer discussions in the Sigma forums it could vary from 1x to 4x depending on subject matter, with 2x being a reasonable "average" resolution gain for a true RGB sensor.
In other words the proposed sensor could have a smaller number of micro-lenses (and therefore better noise characteristics) and still produce sharper images due to the lack of AA filter and to the additional color information."
»pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-n···ent.html
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Jodokast96
R.I.P Bassman442
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| There is so much speculation right now as to what sensor they are going to use, it's almost pointless to speculate. I think it's up to like 5 different manufacturers at this point, and nobody has even the slightest clue. Those that do know (Ben) aren't talking. 2 more days to the Dubai news conference and 16 more until Photokina. I can wait. |
