Does a 12 megapixel camera have 12 X 10**6 “little squares”
in the CCD?

Tony

Glad I could see this article. I was just thinking of this a week or so ago when I read that the guys who invented digital cameras split a nobel prize or some genius award.

The hardest part about writing these articles is to do so in a manner that will make the basic idea accessible to people who are curious, but don’t have any sort of background in the subject. In doing so, things may not be as precise as it would be, say, in a Wikipedia article.

In general, it gets tougher when people who do have background in the subject area come in and leave comments about how something I wrote isn’t strictly correct. I don’t mean you, Pollux, specifically. I’m speaking generally.

That has the unfortunate effect of the layperson dismissing the entire article and still not knowing the basics of a technology. Perhaps they will find articles that target an engineering audience and leave with more confusion than they came with.

There are more green pixels because the human eye is actually more sensitive to the color “green”. I’m aware that it may seem counter-intuitive. : )

The facts are:
1) The highest intensity visible wavelength of light from our sun is “green”. It makes sense, then that our eyes would have sensitivity to match.

2) Therefore, twice the number of “green” pixels in CCDs help make up a greater fidelity (of the color) so that our eyes “see” and our brain “interprets” a believable rendition of a picture.

I just wanted to point you in this direction. There are plenty of sources if you’re curious!

Also, CMOS sensors are very popular in modern electronics because they are smaller, take less power, and are simpler. CCDs are analog devices that require more electronics to convert the received light intensities to a digital image, introducing less efficiency and more power required. The downside to CMOS sensors are that they don’t do too well in the dark and introduce noise/artifacts. (Have you seen a sloppy camera picture in low-light?)

This is a very nice article and I appreciate you explaining this! Knowing/learning how things work can help us excel in using them. The pictures are helpful too!