The Sensor: While I was on "U-Tube" the other day I was looking at one that was talking about sensors. He said that all sensors were Black & White and the color was derived from...

charles tabb Loc: Richmond VA.

While I was on "U-Tube" the other day I was looking at one that was talking about sensors.
He said that all sensors were Black & White and the color was derived from filters that were attached to the sensor. Anybody know anything about this?

BebuLamar

charles tabb wrote:

While I was on "U-Tube" the other day I was looking at one that was talking about sensors.
He said that all sensors were Black & White and the color was derived from filters that were attached to the sensor. Anybody know anything about this?

Yes the sensor are all B&W. They put color filter in front of the photo sites. Orginally it's the Bayer filter. Later on there are some variations to this but ensentially the same.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

Bill_de Loc: US

charles tabb wrote:

While I was on "U-Tube" the other day I was looking at one that was talking about sensors.
He said that all sensors were Black & White and the color was derived from filters that were attached to the sensor. Anybody know anything about this?

Something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

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delder Loc: Maryland

Similar to the Legacy 3 tube Color Vidicon Cameras, with a filter for each Tube.
[ONLY multiplied by Megapixles!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

charles tabb wrote:

While I was on "U-Tube" the other day I was looking at one that was talking about sensors.
He said that all sensors were Black & White and the color was derived from filters that were attached to the sensor. Anybody know anything about this?

The sensor elements, or sensels, have red, green, and blue primary color filters on them. The output of MANY adjacent sensels (there are usually twice as many green ones as red or blue) is "summed" via complex, proprietary algorithms, in order to create a set of red, green, and blue values for each pixel in the output file.

The actual algorithms can be executed in the camera, for JPEG or DNG or TIFF output, OR, the raw data can be saved to files and converted in software on a computer.

There are some cameras that are all monochrome. Output is pure black-and-white, and since each sensel generates a pixel on output, the resolution is much higher. A 16 MP monochrome sensor is much sharper than a 16 MP Bayer Array (color output) sensor.

SeePic Loc: Zebulon, NC

Here is an article that explains:

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:c6e4f176-c004-47cd-9212-83bec33aab54

Alphabravo2020

SeePic wrote:

Here is an article that explains:

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:c6e4f176-c004-47cd-9212-83bec33aab54

Pretty good for an eighth grader.

Alphabravo2020

BebuLamar wrote:

Yes the sensor are all B&W. They put color filter in front of the photo sites. Orginally it's the Bayer filter. Later on there are some variations to this but ensentially the same.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

It is actually a bit disappointing to think that a color photo is so artificially dependent on filters (filter quality, filter color response, etc). I suppose color film has the same dependence. Someone had to choose chemicals which would represent certain colors. It does make me appreciate b/w photography more.

jcboy3

Alphabravo2020 wrote:

It is actually a bit disappointing to think that a color photo is so artificially dependent on filters (filter quality, filter color response, etc). I suppose color film has the same dependence. Someone had to choose chemicals which would represent certain colors. It does make me appreciate b/w photography more.

That's only half the story. Visible light sensors also have infrared filters to block infrared light; you can replace that filter with a visible light filter to let infrared light pass through for infrared photography.

And then there's the anti-aliasing (AA) filter, which blurs the image a little. This helps avoid moire effects.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

charles tabb wrote:

While I was on "U-Tube" the other day I was looking at one that was talking about sensors.
He said that all sensors were Black & White and the color was derived from filters that were attached to the sensor. Anybody know anything about this?

Basically correct.
Even so called color movies (Technicolor) were filmed in black and white then projected through 2 cameras I believe with color filters in front of them so the movie on the screen was in color.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Architect1776 wrote:

Basically correct.
Even so called color movies (Technicolor) were filmed in black and white then projected through 2 cameras I believe with color filters in front of them so the movie on the screen was in color.

Wow, Technicolor is then essentially Movie Color Separation! process. I did not know that. Reading about it, it is pretty darn complicated!

jcboy3

Architect1776 wrote:

Basically correct.
Even so called color movies (Technicolor) were filmed in black and white then projected through 2 cameras I believe with color filters in front of them so the movie on the screen was in color.

One camera, three film strips.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

charles tabb wrote:

While I was on "U-Tube" the other day I was looking at one that was talking about sensors.
He said that all sensors were Black & White and the color was derived from filters that were attached to the sensor. Anybody know anything about this?

Is charles tabb hopelessly confused by now?

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

ALL sensors are not the same... A Bayer array is a matrix which uses filters and interpolation to get the color tones... A Foveon sensor captures light as it passes through layers to capture the tones... Think of a film strip with layers... Blue on top most layer and red on the bottom. I don't know the technicalities of the proprietary fuji sensor. A Leica Monochrom does NOT use filters but captures only the Luminance of the image resulting in sharper images. Different sensors and associated algorithms correspond to different color science and a different look. The basic concepts are fairly easy but the devil is in the details... Lets not make this more complicated to understand than it is...

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Alphabravo2020 wrote:

It is actually a bit disappointing to think that a color photo is so artificially dependent on filters (filter quality, filter color response, etc). I suppose color film has the same dependence. Someone had to choose chemicals which would represent certain colors. It does make me appreciate b/w photography more.

B/W photographs are also dependent on chemistry. There are (were?) many different types of film and they had different sensitivity to the various colors, then had to be developed by one of many different developing chemicals. The result was different tonal values for different colors. Then there were filters which could further modify the tonal response to colors.