Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]JB writes: <<Visual image quality is a result of firmware/software fix-ups both in the camera and in the host computer. This is true for all digital cameras. What you see in a digital camera photograph is 25% hardware technology (there are only a few suppliers of sensors and sensor image processing chips) and 75% software, which works on the pixels after they are captured.>> This is also true of human vision. The image received on the retina is processed numerous times before rising to the level of consious perception. If you think perception is a one to one reproduction of the photon pattern on the retina, you are mistaken. Corrections are made for color (automatic white balance), distortion. size, apparent motion, visual disparity, and image pattern. Perceptions are influenced by prior learning, metabolic state, expectation, and desire. Even our visualization of photographs as a representation of reality must be learned. While what we see is our personal reality, my reality is not the same as yours because of our different backgrounds, physical state, and expectations. There is enough correlation so that we tend to agree on most things, but all of us perceive subtle differences in our common world. Don't believe me? Open any textbook on visual perception or cognitive psychology and learn about the cerebral processing that occurs between sensation and perception. JBs rough relationship of 25% hardware and 75% software is true for what goes on in your head as well as in your digital camera. So enough of this blather about film being "true" and digital being "artificial". Both are abstract representations of what is out there. Neither is "correct". Larry Z - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html