ClarkVision.com
Digital Imaging Information
http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail
R. N. Clark's Email (is encoded to prevent spam):
rnclark at qwest.net
http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail
R. N. Clark's Email (is encoded to prevent spam):
rnclark at qwest.net
Photography Information and Tutorials http://www.clarkvision.com/photoinfo
How Many Megapixels do you need? Plus Other Factors in Choosing a Digital Camera.
Dynamic Range of an Image 1: How many bits do you need? (Intensity Detail of an Image)
The Exposure Latitude of a Digital Camera and Comparison to Film
The Signal-to-Noise of Digital Camera images and Comparison to Film. Digital cameras are in some ways at or near the theoretical limit of what it possible, and have much higher signal-to-noise than film. This page also includes tables of digital camera sensor data, including pixel size, full well capacities, and read noise. (Updated September 16, 2006)
Notes on the resolution, ISO equivalent, focal length, and other details of the human eye.
There are conflicting reports on what the resolution of the eye is.
The main apparent conflicts are due to different definitions used
in scientific papers, but there really is agreement, and the eye's
resolution is higher than often stated. Similar conflicting literature
exists on the eye's focal length and other details. (December 26, 2007).
Digital Camera Sensor Analysis
Digital Cameras: Does Pixel Size Matter? Factors in Choosing a Digital Camera Good digital cameras are photon noise limited. This sets basic properties of sensor performance. (Updated March 3, 2008)
Digital Camera Sensor Performance Summary (Updated December 26, 2008)
Digital Cameras: Counting Photons, Photometry, and Quantum Efficiency (September 3, 2007)
Procedures for Evaluating Digital Camera Sensor Noise, Dynamic Range, and Full Well Capacities; Canon 1D Mark II Analysis (Updated August 26, 2007)
The Nikon D50 Digital Camera: Sensor Noise, Dynamic Range, and Full Well Analysis (May 6, 2006)
The Nikon D200 Digital Camera: Sensor Noise, Dynamic Range, and Full Well Analysis (September 16, 2006)
The Canon S70 Digital Camera: Sensor Noise, Dynamic Range, and Full Well Analysis (September 16, 2006)
Digital Cameras and Long Exposure Times: Noise and Dark Current Comparisons (Sept. 1, 2006)
Digital Camera Raw Converter Shadow Detail and Image Editor Limitations: Factors in Getting Shadow Detail in Images The performance of raw converters in how noise and shadow detail gets recorded varies a lot. (April 16, 2006)
Image Restoration Using Adaptive Richardson-Lucy Iteration
Improving image detail with image restoration methods.
Digital Camera Raw versus Jpeg Conversion Losses Digital Camera Raw versus Jpeg Conversion Losses. (February 3, 2005)
Compact Flash Card Speed How fast a Digital Camera can write to a compact flash memory card seems to depend on how full the card is. (January 1, 2007)
Unsharp mask experiments to improve apparent image detail.
(Nov 24, 2002)
A Photographic Image Quality Test Using the Moon
Check your camera and processing skills against this standardized
moon imaging test. See differences between top DSLR versus
low cost point and shoot camera equipment.
(May 2006)
Film versus Digital Cameras: How many Megapixels?
This article shows the digital megapixel equivalent of film as a function
of film speed and film format from 35mm to medium and large format.
(May 11, 2002).
Information on scanning detail from film, as well as comparisons
between film and the new digital camera technology:
Image Detail and Scanning Film.
How many dpi are needed to record all the detail? Should sampling be at the Nyquist frequency or higher? It must be higher!
Scanner comparisons: flat bed scanners versus a drum scan for large format film. (October 28, 2005)
Lens sharpness testing relative to each other and removing the effects of different focal lengths. For example: does adding a teleconverter degrade sharpness? January 28, 2005.
A test between Canon 100-400mm L IS, Sigma 170-500mm, and Canon 75-300mm IS zoom lenses.
Experiences with teleconverters and image quality. August 28, 2004.
Experiments with Pixels Per Inch (PPI) on
Printed Image Sharpness
If you thought images printed at 300 ppi on your inkjet printer are the
best, read this. It is not always true.
(July 3, 2005).
The digital print advantage over
traditional printing methods.
www.scantips.com: scanning tips, except note that conclusions on these pages are sometimes different than on this site, like the maximum DPI you need to scan all detail on a photographic print.
http://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/MTF.html More info on MTF--very detailed--reaches similar conclusions as here.
Down-sampling examples. by Bart van der Wolf. There can be quite a difference in the detail in a downsampled image. This page illustrates the results from various methods.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/filmdig.htm
An article by Ken Rockwell on film
versus digital, with similar conclusions.
Ken goes into more detail on advantages and disadvantages of each medium.
I disagree with some of Ken's statements on digital's dynamic range,
but everything else I do agree. Dynamic range issues are different than
digital's maximum signal ability. With digital one needs to expose to
not clip the highlights, and there will still be dynamic range and enough
signal-to-noise ratio to get image detail in dark shadows.
R. N. Clark's Email (is encoded to prevent spam):
rnclark at qwest.net
First Published 2000.
Last updated December 23, 2008
A resolution test target imaged with Fujichrome Velvia
and a D60 6-megapixel digital camera
shows graphic differences in the Film versus
Digital Cameras: How many Megapixels
debate.