The Image Sensor! Your best friend~!

Hi guys, sorry about the late update. Been kindof busy here at Citiwide being almost summer and all (Hey, I multitask, a lot). Now on the last post, we were discussing about how MP count is often mistaken for the quality of the image taken by your camera. I also explained what it actually is and demythisize (my word) its importance. Now it is time to introduce the part that is actually responsible for the quality of your image. Behold, the IMAGE SENSOR! You may also see this called a CMOS image sensor or a CCD image sensor. CMOS and CCD simply refers to the two process used to create the sensors. They both have their pros and cons. However, as a recent trend, CMOS has been overtaking CCD in market share because of its lower cost and rapid technological advances. In either case, I will let you google that up yourself, we are here to discuss the actual sensor!

The image sensor is a... well sensor of light. Behind the lens of your camera, there lies a flat sheet of light receptors that is used to capture light and in turn convert light to an electronic signal. This sensor is what replaced film in the traditional camera (memory is storage for film... think of it as the film casing). As you know, the quality of film directly affects image quality in old cameras, and digital cameras are exactly the same. As a rule of thumb, large image sensors are better. A larger image sensor also means less noise (generally). If you are trying to understand the concept, think of an TIc TAc TOE board, and trying to draw pictures on it. With 3X3 squares, you are limited to really basic designs. If you upgrade that board to... lets say a chess board. Now, you can start drawing smiley faces and words etc. Now finally, upgrade the chess board to... lets say the seating plan of an Olympic stadium. Now, you can draw some pretty intricate designs. Your image sensor works exactly the same. The bigger it is, means more rows and columns of receptors there is. Therefore, the image you take will be more detailed with less noise! Now, combining your image sensor with Megapixels, when your camera has megapixel counts beyond what the image sensor can handle practically, the camera will fill out the spaces in between with guesses. These guesses generally becomes noise! Thats why you can find digital cameras from manufacturers you never heard of sporting 15 Megapixel but selling for 50 dollars! These are simply inferior products with a marketing gimmick. The golden ratio of megapixels and image sensor size is a mystery, and changes everyday as new photo technology emerges. However, generally speaking, interms of sensors, BIGGER IS BETTER! Now this is the layman version of explaining the image sensor. Its a lot more complicated than that, but I hope I gave you a brief outline.

Now why did I say generally bigger is better? Well as technology advances, what use to fit on your thumb can now fit on your pinky. So an image sensor 5 years ago the size of your thumb could just be as good as an image sensor found in current DC the size of your pinky finger! Also, different manufacturers have incorporated their own unique designs to stand out from competitors. The best thing to do, from a practical stand point, is to search the internet or ask your photohobby shop which brand has the best reviews or recommendations. Now due to commercial reasons, I cannot tell you on my blog posts, but if you send me an email, I will gladly reply you my recommendation. Now on my next update, I am going to introduce another key aspect you should consider when buying a camera, stay tuned!

Note: MP count is a feature of the image sensor, please do not be mistaken that they are two seperate things.