Introduction and Summary Findings
To judge from the various threads in discussion forums and web reports with performance tests, the arrival of the latest crop of DSLRs has generated a renewed flurry of interest in the subject of two big factors determining image quality: noise and resolution. It’s natural – one wonders whether new technology really allows, say, cramming 21 million photosites within a 24*36mm rectangle at tolerable noise levels, or whether the engineers cleverly designed processing algorithms which “simply” smooth out the noise at the expense of image detail, or whether there’s an optimum combination of both things happening. We don’t know the “whys and wherefores” within the camera, but we can look systematically at the results. Noise and detail are the flip sides of the coin because noise can obscure detail, as can noise-reducing firmware and software. Lens aperture and exposure technique also affect apparent resolutio...
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Mark has been making photographs for the past six decades and started adopting a digital workflow in 1999 first with scanning film, then going fully digital in 2004. He has worked with a considerable range of software, equipment and techniques over the years, accumulated substantial experience as an author, educator and communicator in several fields and is a frequent contributor to the Luminous-Landscape website. Mark developed a particular interest in film scanning and authored the ebook “Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop” available on the SilverFast website. In his “other life” (the one that pays for the photography), Mark is a retiree from the World Bank Group and now a consultant in electric power development.
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