I’ve added 17 more cameras to my test suite. The results:
Same trends apply. Older CCD cameras are worse for SMI, except for the NEX-5N, which has lousy SMI. Not a lot of difference wrt the CFA’s effect on noise.
Photography meets digital computer technology. Photography wins -- most of the time.
I’ve added 17 more cameras to my test suite. The results:
Same trends apply. Older CCD cameras are worse for SMI, except for the NEX-5N, which has lousy SMI. Not a lot of difference wrt the CFA’s effect on noise.
OverDrive says
Hi, JimK.
After reading your six articles about this theme, I have a question. I am just an amateur in photography thus bear with me for my knowledge level.
In reality, the radiance energy is filtered according to the CFA‘s spectra, thus this might affect the SNR of the sensor if the illuminance and exposure time are the same on the sensor plane. If some CFA spectra designs filter out larger parts in wavelength, then SNR is lower as less energy remains. Am I correct?
And in your conclusion, as you stated in the 1st article of this simulation methodology:
1, Normalization for each color channel;
and 2, ETTR for a color plane.
You deliberately exclude the attenuation of the filters.
I think that is why the conclusion you made does not fully match my first thought about the relationship between SNR(relative to visual noise) and CFA spectra design.
JimK says
The filters are normalized so their spectral peaks are at 100% transmission. I have ways in the program to deal with additional losses, but hardly any data on those losses.
NiceDays says
I happen to upgrade from NEX-5T ($100) to a6300 ($400) recently and not seeing much improvement besides slightly less noise at higher ISO, but in both cameras when going higher than ISO 3200 noise significantly affects details and a6300 has about 1-stop more latitude over NEX-5T.
In my day-to-day photography not helps much provided i seldom go above ISO 400-800 and AI noise reduction in Photoshop is so efficient (even without NR i don’t mind grain on photos).
Basically at first glance if not take little things like menu and few extra features, like improved AF don’t play much role for me as i mostly used to NEX-5T and mostly use manual lenses. I am trying to justify the need for a6300 upgrade to myself.
Wonder if you ever tested ISO invariance on NEX-5 or any other tests besides what’s i this article i am commenting?