Jujube/pixels
Pixels and Perception
Sharpness has become a mainstream aesthetic. But I sense there is a (data) inflation when it comes to the hype.
In the broadest strokes and from my current understanding, three things affect sharpness digitally:
- the photosensor determines the capacity of maximum data input
- the image quality (a setting on the camera) regulates the actual data stored
- the display/physical medium that outputs the image (to be perceived by a human)
A digital Input to a digital Output interests me the most because of its potential to show how the sharpness we think we are seeing is not what we actually see. What we actually see is probably simpler... We might be able to rethink about sharpness and whether it matters at all.
Photosensor
This actual size of the 5D Mark III sensor is 36mm x 24 mm, which translates to this:
| surface area | 864 mm² |
| photosites (pixels) | 22,300,000 |
| pixel pitch | 6.22 µm |
| photosite (pixel) area = pixel pitch² | 38.69 µm² |
| pixel density[1] | 2.58 MP/cm² |
Pixel pitch tells you the distance from the center of one photosite(pixel) to the center of the next. The larger the photosite, the more light it can capture and the more information can be recorded. Pixel density tells you how many million pixels fit or would fit in one square cm of the sensor.[2]
Image Quality
something
Display
something