3-chip really better than 1-chip cams?

"Lisa Horton" wrote in message
oups.com...
Are 3-chip cams really better than 1-chip cams? Side by side with the
naked eye, I din't notice a whopping difference. Why exactly are the 2
extra CCDs worth having?

You must have been looking at a pretty poor 3-ccd machine.

As a general rule, 3-ccd machines will have better low-light sensitivity,
less chroma noise, better saturation, and less artifacts.

A three CCD camera will typically give you a much better image. However, a
one CCD camera, with a large chip, vis a 3CCD camera with three tiny chips
may not give you much difference. But when you get up onto the higher end
cameras, you will see a difference.


"Lisa Horton" wrote in message
oups.com...
Are 3-chip cams really better than 1-chip cams? Side by side with the
naked eye, I din't notice a whopping difference. Why exactly are the 2
extra CCDs worth having?

Bigguy wrote:
Incomig light is split into R,G,B by dichroic mirrors/prisms.... each
component colour falls on its own CCD...
Green CCD is offset half a pixel to enhance resolution.

This technique is used in higher end/broadcast camcorders, but not I
think
in stills cameras due to space/cost considerations

It's used in high end consumer camcorders too. These are all relatively
low resolution (even the broadcast camcorders) compared to camera
sensors.

The technology doesn't scale well to higher resolutions, because it's
too hard to maintain precise alignment of the multiple sensors and the
prizm.

The original Foveon camera that used this technique (three sensors, see
"http://steves-digicams.com/diginews_jul99.html"), but once higher
resolution single sensors were introduced, it wasn't needed. Foveon
tried to stack three sensors on top of each other, and filter the
colors through the silicon, but it didn't work very well, and the color
ended up worse than the conventional Bayer sensor, and the noise levels
were high. You can still buy a camera with the Foveon sensor, the Sigma
SD10, but it isn't well regarded (see "http://sigmasd10.com"). Foveon
is going after the low end market now, such as camera phones, and other
applications where the physical size and cost of the sensor are more
important.

Waiving the right to remain silent, "Lisa Horton"
wrote:

Are 3-chip cams really better than 1-chip cams? Side by side with the
naked eye, I din't notice a whopping difference.

While looking at what..?

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Larry J. - Remove spamtrap in ALLCAPS to e-mail

"If you take out the killings, Washington actually
has a very low crime rate."
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In message .com,
"Scharf-DCA" wrote:

The original Foveon camera that used this technique (three sensors, see
"http://steves-digicams.com/diginews_jul99.html"), but once higher
resolution single sensors were introduced, it wasn't needed. Foveon
tried to stack three sensors on top of each other, and filter the
colors through the silicon, but it didn't work very well, and the color
ended up worse than the conventional Bayer sensor, and the noise levels
were high.

To be fair, the noise of the total signal is actually low (such as, if
you added the RAW channels back together for a greyscale image). It is
only when separating blues and greens that heavy noise surfaces,
chromatically.
--


John P Sheehy