Computer Basics for Photographers - Bits and Bytes Explained! Computer Basics for Photographers - Bits and Bytes Explained! I have seen several posts, in fact three today, where...

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Computer Basics for Photographers - Bits and Bytes Explained!

I have seen several posts, in fact three today, where photographers confuse camera math terms with computer math terms and end up completely confused. Let me try and somewhat simplify a complicated subject. Let’s start with computers.

Computers are mathematically based devices and their operation at the most basic level involves binary math. What is binary math? To answer that question, you must first understand a couple of simple concepts. First, there are two ways to count. The Roman’s used a non-positional counting system. If you look at how one counts in Roman numerals, you will see that the sequence is I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, Etc. Note that the value of the numbers are unrelated to their position. Four IV has the higher value “V” (five) to the right of the “I” (one), but VI (six) has the higher value “V” to the left of the lower value “I”.

You are most familiar with the decimal “base-10” number system, a positional number system; each position to the left or right of the decimal point has place value. From the decimal point to the left, the place values are 1, 10, 100, Etc.; while to the right of the decimal point the values are 0.1 (tenths), 0.01 (hundredths), 0.001 (thousandths), Etc.

The second thing you must understand is that computers do everything in a binary number system also called “base 2”. A binary system is also a positional system, however instead of ten numbers (0 through 9), there are only two (0 and 1). In a binary system, you count 000 (equals 0 decimal), 001 (equals 1 decimal), 010 (equals 2 decimal), 011 (equals 3 decimal), 100 (equals 4 decimal), 101 (equals 5 decimal), 110 (equals 6 decimal) and 111 (equals 7 decimal). In a computer, binary numbers describe the position of electronic switches (0=off and 1=on).

In a binary system the equivalent of a single base-10 digit is called a “bit”. In computer Machine Language, the computer language in which a computer calculates, everything is binary. When trying to write programs, this is very cumbersome because a programmer could need to enter a 64-bit number for each of the thousands of commands that make up a program. To simplify programming, bits are converted to “words”. In modern computers, words are expressed as hexadecimal (base-16) numbers. Instead of each position having ten possible values as in the decimal system, each position has 16 possible values. In “hex”, you count 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D and F. Letters are used above the value of 9 because decimal digits only go as far as 9. By using hex, programmers are able to form four position bytes so that one byte equals four bits. Furthermore, by combining those 16 bytes into a “word” (a collection of bytes), programming is substantially simplified because the 64 bits can be programmed with less input.

“Pixels” and “Megapixels” (=1,000,000 pixels) are relative to the camera and not the computer. The computer’s file size is a function of many things besides the number of pixels. Remember, that the file contains “Metadata”. The metadata contains information on the camera and settings used to take the picture, detailed information about the picture itself including each and every editing step that was applied to the picture, copyright information, Etc. Look at the size of a file both before and after editing and you will see that the file size can grow substantially.

Therefore, the notion that there is a DIRECT mathematical relationship between the camera’s pixel quantity, file type, or anything else related to the camera and the computer’s file size should be considered questionable.

BebuLamar

One of the most important thing about computer and camera is that mg doesn't have that much important. Well unless you are one of those who worries about the weight of your gear.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Its so easy..I don't know why People find it hard to understand!!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

BebuLamar wrote:

One of the most important thing about computer and camera is that mg doesn't have that much important. Well unless you are one of those who worries about the weight of your gear.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Doddy wrote:

Its so easy..I don't know why People find it hard to understand!!

Yup, been working with them since 1972.

Photocraig

bpulv wrote:

Computer Basics for Photographers - Bits and Bytes Explained!

I have seen several posts, in fact three today, where photographers confuse camera math terms with computer math terms and end up completely confused. Let me try and somewhat simplify a complicated subject. Let’s start with computers.

Computers are mathematically based devices and their operation at the most basic level involves binary math. What is binary math? To answer that question, you must first understand a couple of simple concepts. First, there are two ways to count. The Roman’s used a non-positional counting system. If you look at how one counts in Roman numerals, you will see that the sequence is I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, Etc. Note that the value of the numbers are unrelated to their position. Four IV has the higher value “V” (five) to the right of the “I” (one), but VI (six) has the higher value “V” to the left of the lower value “I”.

You are most familiar with the decimal “base-10” number system, a positional number system; each position to the left or right of the decimal point has place value. From the decimal point to the left, the place values are 1, 10, 100, Etc.; while to the right of the decimal point the values are 0.1 (tenths), 0.01 (hundredths), 0.001 (thousandths), Etc.

The second thing you must understand is that computers do everything in a binary number system also called “base 2”. A binary system is also a positional system, however instead of ten numbers (0 through 9), there are only two (0 and 1). In a binary system, you count 000 (equals 0 decimal), 001 (equals 1 decimal), 010 (equals 2 decimal), 011 (equals 3 decimal), 100 (equals 4 decimal), 101 (equals 5 decimal), 110 (equals 6 decimal) and 111 (equals 7 decimal). In a computer, binary numbers describe the position of electronic switches (0=off and 1=on).

In a binary system the equivalent of a single base-10 digit is called a “bit”. In computer Machine Language, the computer language in which a computer calculates, everything is binary. When trying to write programs, this is very cumbersome because a programmer could need to enter a 64-bit number for each of the thousands of commands that make up a program. To simplify programming, bits are converted to “words”. In modern computers, words are expressed as hexadecimal (base-16) numbers. Instead of each position having ten possible values as in the decimal system, each position has 16 possible values. In “hex”, you count 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D and F. Letters are used above the value of 9 because decimal digits only go as far as 9. By using hex, programmers are able to form four position bytes so that one byte equals four bits. Furthermore, by combining those 16 bytes into a “word” (a collection of bytes), programming is substantially simplified because the 64 bits can be programmed with less input.

“Pixels” and “Megapixels” (=1,000,000 pixels) are relative to the camera and not the computer. The computer’s file size is a function of many things besides the number of pixels. Remember, that the file contains “Metadata”. The metadata contains information on the camera and settings used to take the picture, detailed information about the picture itself including each and every editing step that was applied to the picture, copyright information, Etc. Look at the size of a file both before and after editing and you will see that the file size can grow substantially.

Therefore, the notion that there is a DIRECT mathematical relationship between the camera’s pixel quantity, file type, or anything else related to the camera and the computer’s file size should be considered questionable.

Computer Basics for Photographers - Bits and Bytes... (show quote)

NICE!

jcryan Loc: Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

bpulv wrote:

In a binary system the equivalent of a single base-10 digit is called a “bit”.

Minor correction: a single base-2 or binary digit (0 or 1) is a bit. 8 bits (decimal 0 to 255, Hex 00 to FF) is a byte. A word is dependent on the computer architecture. Common word sizes are 8, 16, 24, 32, and 64 bits (1,2,3,4,8 bytes). Word size is mostly unimportant to the user, however I once worked on a project migrating complex engineering programs from Honeywell (36 bit word - 12 octal digits) to IBM (32 bit word). The heavy matrix calculations involved never yielded exact results on the two platforms, but as in all things engineering they were close enough.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

And 4 bits was often referred to as a “nibble” instead of a byte.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

jcryan wrote:

Minor correction: a single base-2 or binary digit ... (show quote)

Thank you for the additional information, however I purposely did not go into that level of detail because my goal was to explain things in a simplified way so, as as much as possible, not to add to people's confusion about a highly technical subject.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

TriX wrote:

And 4 bits was often referred to as a “nibble” instead of a byte.

True, but none of the posts or responses I have seen on UHH have used that term, therefore why confuse confused people even more?

BebuLamar

bpulv wrote:

True, but none of the posts or responses I have seen on UHH have used that term, therefore why confuse confused people even more?

You already confused a lot of people so some more doesn't hurt. No matter you think how simple what you said is they are not simple to many people.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

bpulv wrote:

True, but none of the posts or responses I have seen on UHH have used that term, therefore why confuse confused people even more?

Because you have referred to 4 bits as a byte (“...By using hex, programmers are able to form four position bytes so that one byte equals four bits...) ,which is hardly standard or accepted terminology and is actually the confusing statement.

I believe/hope that you know a byte is commonly assumed to be 8 bits. It was simply a bit of trivia, not a criticism. And why do you presume that that people are “confused” and need your instruction? There are a number of members of this forum who are at least as experienced as you (I started with IBM in 1965). What’s with the snarky response? Lighten up...

jcboy3

bpulv wrote:

Computer Basics for Photographers - Bits and Bytes Explained!

I have seen several posts, in fact three today, where photographers confuse camera math terms with computer math terms and end up completely confused. Let me try and somewhat simplify a complicated subject. Let’s start with computers.

Computers are mathematically based devices and their operation at the most basic level involves binary math. What is binary math? To answer that question, you must first understand a couple of simple concepts. First, there are two ways to count. The Roman’s used a non-positional counting system. If you look at how one counts in Roman numerals, you will see that the sequence is I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, Etc. Note that the value of the numbers are unrelated to their position. Four IV has the higher value “V” (five) to the right of the “I” (one), but VI (six) has the higher value “V” to the left of the lower value “I”.

You are most familiar with the decimal “base-10” number system, a positional number system; each position to the left or right of the decimal point has place value. From the decimal point to the left, the place values are 1, 10, 100, Etc.; while to the right of the decimal point the values are 0.1 (tenths), 0.01 (hundredths), 0.001 (thousandths), Etc.

The second thing you must understand is that computers do everything in a binary number system also called “base 2”. A binary system is also a positional system, however instead of ten numbers (0 through 9), there are only two (0 and 1). In a binary system, you count 000 (equals 0 decimal), 001 (equals 1 decimal), 010 (equals 2 decimal), 011 (equals 3 decimal), 100 (equals 4 decimal), 101 (equals 5 decimal), 110 (equals 6 decimal) and 111 (equals 7 decimal). In a computer, binary numbers describe the position of electronic switches (0=off and 1=on).

In a binary system the equivalent of a single base-10 digit is called a “bit”. In computer Machine Language, the computer language in which a computer calculates, everything is binary. When trying to write programs, this is very cumbersome because a programmer could need to enter a 64-bit number for each of the thousands of commands that make up a program. To simplify programming, bits are converted to “words”. In modern computers, words are expressed as hexadecimal (base-16) numbers. Instead of each position having ten possible values as in the decimal system, each position has 16 possible values. In “hex”, you count 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D and F. Letters are used above the value of 9 because decimal digits only go as far as 9. By using hex, programmers are able to form four position bytes so that one byte equals four bits. Furthermore, by combining those 16 bytes into a “word” (a collection of bytes), programming is substantially simplified because the 64 bits can be programmed with less input.

“Pixels” and “Megapixels” (=1,000,000 pixels) are relative to the camera and not the computer. The computer’s file size is a function of many things besides the number of pixels. Remember, that the file contains “Metadata”. The metadata contains information on the camera and settings used to take the picture, detailed information about the picture itself including each and every editing step that was applied to the picture, copyright information, Etc. Look at the size of a file both before and after editing and you will see that the file size can grow substantially.

Therefore, the notion that there is a DIRECT mathematical relationship between the camera’s pixel quantity, file type, or anything else related to the camera and the computer’s file size should be considered questionable.

Computer Basics for Photographers - Bits and Bytes... (show quote)

Not worth it to explain every error in this. I recommend moving on.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

TriX wrote:

And 4 bits was often referred to as a “nibble” instead of a byte.

4 bits=1 dollar

0-off

1-on

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

jcryan wrote:

Minor correction: a single base-2 or binary digit ... (show quote)

Introducing the concept of 'word' is just asking for trouble. Adding to your list, the first two computers I programmed had word lengths of 36 and 60 bits, respectively, but that adds nothing to this discussion.