According to Tony Northrop, ISO in digital cameras are fake?

warden

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
3,042
Location
Philadelphia
Format
Medium Format

You could have snuck in dark matter, the Flux Capacitor and a Langstrom 7" Gangley wrench and I would have been none the wiser.

Thanks for sharing - I appreciate the learnings. The video is rather like a high school project, and then some college profs walk in and put some science to it.
 

markjwyatt

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
Messages
2,417
Location
Southern California
Format
Multi Format

A much deeper explanation, thanks.

When I was working with thermal imaging with cooled InSb sensors (both scanning and array) the software basically allowed the user to set a temperature range, then modified the electronics to create a window. Integration time was something you could manipulate directly also. These were considered quantum well detectors. Analogously, for digital (visual) imagers, maybe software could be created to allow the user to set a zone range (say II-IX) or even a bit range (say, 8-bit, 5-252) then let the electronics place some percentage of the scene in that range (say 99.5% or 95%, or user settable % of the pixels in the scene).
 

Nodda Duma

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2013
Messages
2,685
Location
Batesville, Arkansas
Format
Multi Format
My pleasure, fellas. Ironically, knowing/learning all that stuff and characterizing all the new FPA’s coming out at the time to see if we could use them for work is what kept me shooting film. I didn’t want to process imager data at my computer all day and then go home and process images at my computer all evening!
 

tedr1

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2016
Messages
940
Location
50 miles from NYC USA
Format
Multi Format
Here's a little bit more imaging science. The sensors used in "digital" cameras are analogue devices, bright light produces a bigger electrical charge than dim light. Sensor electrical output (the various values of electrical charge corresponding to darker and lighter parts of the scene) passes into an analogue to digital convertor IC (ADC) the output of which is where the "digital" part of the rest of the camera originates, and which perform the camera image display and memory functions. The sensor ADC has to convert the charge values that arrive simultaneously from millions of sensor pixels and do so very rapidly to a high degree of accuracy. In popular formats of digital camera the convertors operate to 12 and often 14 bit accuracy, which after formatting editing and compression is used to produce the familiar 8 bit JPG image.
 

nmp

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2005
Messages
2,021
Location
Maryland USA
Format
35mm
If Northrop had used "erroneous" instead of "fake," this whole controversy might have been avoided. But then he would have had not as many clicks and a big long discussion in his name. It seems his main problem (that I surmised after a few minutes of video before I stopped) was that different cameras when shot with the same iso gave different results.
 

mmerig

Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2012
Messages
212
Location
Teton Valley
Format
Medium Format

I agree that some other word rather than fake could have been better, as "fake" is a loaded term these days. But it was the graphic image and plain curiosity that motivated me to look into the video. I don't really see much controversy, but maybe there is some if people don't even watch the whole video and then criticize it. I am surprised by the mostly negative reaction to a video that did a reasonable job of explaining something using actual measurements. APUG is a tough crowd, I guess.
 

alentine

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Messages
200
Format
Multi Format
If Northrop had used "erroneous" instead of "fake," this whole controversy might have been avoided.
I think if digital photography has been recognized in its own context as digital photography or imaging in the first place, there will be no shocking discoveries can be made.
As clearly mentioned above, it’s different media.
Image features(on print) for example, between the rendering of electron charge transformation and the optical photon depiction, may become the next hot topic discovery.
I think it has been made intentionally to distort the vocabularies of the concise scientific dictionary to conform with different but established popular and successful context.
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…