Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> I wonder if the 5D's better peformance over the 300D's equal area 6MP is due
> to better tonal gradations or some such.
I think it's what DPR has named, for want of an existing term, "per
pixel resolution". It's fairly easy to notice, but hard to define. I
knew the 5D was much better than the 300D as soon as I looked at the
first few shots on the computer. I suspect that it has to do in part
with improvements in some of the areas I just raised that go beyond
simple B&W resolution tests. There are also sensor level technical
changes. One that comes to mind is a change where spill-over electrons
from maxed out sites end up in a trash bucket, rather than migrating to
adjacent sites.
> I suspect the perceived resolution of real world color detail is much
> influenced by eye and brain interaction and may go somewhat beyond true
> physical resolution.
>
I know that's a factor. I did what I could to make them comparable. I
shot using a tripod, used the same lens and settings and switched only
cameras. Shots were of a combination of vegetation and details of
houses, utility pole, wires, etc. I then overlaid images in PS, as in my
roll-overs, so I could flip back and forth without changing anything
else. I even played with upsampling 5D and downsampling 300D images to
make apparent size the same.
There was clearly slightly more detail discernible, or at least more
clearly discernible, in the 5D images.
> None of us sees our retinal blind spot so it's clear the brain and optic
> nerve can do a lot of image fill-in.
>
Much more than that. Only the central portion of our visual field
actually is in color and is particularly sharp. The high sensitivity
"rods" outside of that area are large, i.e. low sensor density, and
luminance only. That our visual field seems to be entirely sharp and in
color is a virtual image creation of the mind. At any moment we want to
think about any part of it, our eyes shift and fill in the details.
Moose
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