Bayer Pattern

[Terry VerHaar]

Film is dead, long live film.

Film is dead, long live film.

Whenever I see commentary on this subject, usually great pains are taken to point out that the camera/technology/etc. is just a "tool" and that good films are made by talented people with good ideas and a great story. This is, of course, true and will remain so forever. But, after taking this as a given, it has to be acknowledged that the quality of the tools that the craftsman uses does have an effect on the quality of the product.

I listed to the discussion by the ASC members about digital and came away thinking that the real advantages of high quality digital platforms right now are accessibility, immediacy and future growth. Even if you lean one way or the other on which is currently the "best" way to make films today, I think that someone just getting into making "movies" today would find it easier and more immediately gratifying to pick up a Sony EX-1 or an HVX-200 or whatever and get started. Most of them have far easier acccess to these cameras than films cameras and, with the immediate feedback of digital and the ability to shoot and post all in the same day, young "filmmakers" can make their mistakes and learn more quickly.

In addition to immediacy (instant gratification in an ADD society), digital platforms like RED also represent tremendous future growth. I am sure there are those that would argue that there is still plenty of room for film to advance technologically but I think it is a pretty mature medium and the potential growth in capability doesn't begin to match that of digital (IMHO). So, whatever medium is "best" today, I personally think that the future lies with digital (RED) and that newer and younger filmmakers will naturally jump on that learning curve to ride it forward.

Terry

 

[David Rasberry]

To date a Bayer pattern sensor is the closest mechanical analog to the way photo receptors are distributed in the human eye. The 2:1 relationship between green/luminance and red/blue receptors is a characteristic of normal human vision too. That and the fact that it is a single focal plane device make it perhaps the most efficient digital imaging format developed so far. It has become the defacto standard for most still cameras, and with the significant improvements in CMOS technology, an effective motion imaging device too.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Re: Film resolution.

One thing though to keep in mind is that while grain might not have technical image data it is in of itself aesthetically pleasing. So you might not be able to read a chart off of extra resolution in a scanned negative, the extra resolution better resolves the grain itself.

Is it worth it? Well that's in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Rick Burnett]

To date a Bayer pattern sensor is the closest mechanical analog to the way photo receptors are distributed in the human eye. The 2:1 relationship between green/luminance and red/blue receptors is a characteristic of normal human vision too. That and the fact that it is a single focal plane device make it perhaps the most efficient digital imaging format developed so far. It has become the defacto standard for most still cameras, and with the significant improvements in CMOS technology, an effective motion imaging device too.

This is incredibly valid, glad you brought this up. That's one of the reasons I thought the Bayer pattern produced such pleasing results.

Personally with the RGB stripe approach, I don't see how the aliasing isn't going to really be a problem. It seems you can get a sharper image out of the Bayer pattern since pixels are larger on the sensor and the active to not active per color area is better (meaning on Bayer your pattern is in a row RGRGRG or 50% coverage, for RGB stripe it's 33% coverage per area).

Just curious Graeme, have you all researched fovean sensors for video?

http://www.foveon.com/article.php?a=67

I have NO experience with that sort of technology, though I do understand it.

 

[Graeme Nattress]

Foveon sensors too slow for our needs and have serious colorimetry issues due to silicon being a poor colour filter. That means you have to routinely denoise the chroma, which means that you're loosing that per-pixel RGB. I don't think they're the best for low noise in general either. For their best sensor it's 5fps full frame and 62 db, neither of which are enough.

Graeme