Digital BW, The Print

Richard wrote:


> On the basis of what you have claimed below, can we assume a single bit chip
> 24x36mm would be the ultimate?

The ultimate what? A single bit would give you two values, dark and 
bright. So obviously that would not be very useful unless you were 
looking to replace lith film, and even then there are easier ways.

In all probability you would have a huge dynamic range, though. I'm 
familiar with a scanning all-sky camera, which has a single CCD process 
photosite just under a dozen millimeters on a side. It puts 
fainter-than-visible stars (~12mv) above the noise floor and can fit an 
image of the full moon (~-13mv) in to the image alongside them without 
clipping. That's a brightness ratio of around ten billion.

--
Jeff Medkeff
Eagle River, Alaska