Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
How digital sensors count light
A sensor stores light as charge in photosites, and a color picture is built from those counts.
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From the opening
A digital sensor counts light by gathering photons in a grid of photosites, each of which turns incoming light into a charge that is measured as a number. The file begins as that field of counts, not as a picture you could already look at. The opening covers photons become charge, then numbers, a mosaic, then demosaicing, and iSO amplifies, it does not collect.
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Inside
- Photons become charge, then numbers
- A mosaic, then demosaicing
- ISO amplifies, it does not collect
- Full sites and spilled charge
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Bayer-filter photosites and demosaicing
- Full-well capacity and digital amplification