Digital BW, The Print

Hi Harvey,

> For all intents and purposes are not interpolating at this point,
> but have a
> true 5 megapixel (or whatever)  camera.  On the other hand, the
> manufacturers of
> those '4 shot' cameras might claim 4 times the pixel coiunt, and
> we'd be right
> back to where we started this discussion.

I believe it is a real pixel count.  The arithmetic supports that...

> > IOW, pixel count (resolution) is independent from color info.
> You and Austin
> > have maintained that a 6 megapix camera would only give you one
> quarter of
> > that many pixels in grayscale mode (correct me if I'm wrong).
>
> I actually assume that if you shoot in grayscale (not convert in
> Photoshop) you
> will actually have the pixel count that the manufacturers claim
> (but that is a
> guess on my part).  And it would depend on how each camera
> actually works to
> capture the information.

Hum...I don't believe that's true.  What it pretty much has to do is take
the color image, and then the camera converts TO grayscale.  It has no
choice, since the color filters on the sensor cells can't be removed!

> > I am
> > questioning that. I'm suggesting that that *IS* the resolution of those
> > cameras, and the file sizes get larger from there as the color
> information
> > gets added on top of that. IOW, a 6 megapix camera may yield an 18MB RGB
> > TIFF. You don't get 18MB of resolution, but you do get 6 megapixels of
> > resolution.

6M pixels IS 18M, since each pixel is 3 bytes, one for each RGB.  The sensor
in the camera IS what the sensor is, and a 6M sensor really only has 1.5M
red sensors, 1.5M blue sensors and 3M green sensors...and the 6M IS
interpolated, not REAL data.

> This is such a 'relative ' argument.  Define what makes
> 'resolution'. The camera
> yields whatever file size it says it will, but the question is:
> Where does the
> camera get that information from?  How much is real and how much is
> interpolation?

Exactly.

> There finally is no way a1 color sensor can yield a real pixel of
> information
> that must contain 3 colors of information.

And right again ;-)

Regards,

Austin