Re: What is APS?

[P3D Michael Kersenbrock <michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >In summary, given processing-power-on-a-chip say, ten years from now,
> >we should be able to generate a digital camera at a somewhat reasonable 
> >price (*if* sold in volume) that will do much of the processing, including 
> >window manipulation (and such) probably in real time, and in the camera.  And
> >in stereo.
> 
> I wouldn't be quite so sure of that.  The problem today is not lack of
> "processing power".  There are single-chip microcontrollers that are
> more powerful than the early PCs, which can easily be embedded in

Those microcontrollers don't even touch the coat-tails of the throw-away
packaging of the new/next generation high-end DSP chips *now*.  We're
talking about DSP chips now that'll blow away Pentium-Pro chips for what
they do, even with half their pins tied behind their backs.  Assuming
one calls Ball Pin Array bumps "pins".  :-)

> a camera.  This won't do anything for your basic image quality, which
> requires resolution, not merely processing power (remember, "Garbage
> in, garbage out" still applies).

Yes.  Digital camera optics/resolution is expected to improve as well
at the lower price classes.  One *can* buy adequate digital cameras now
at high prices (how's that one that's built inside a Nikon body by Kodak?).

> No, the high cost of photographic-resolution digital imaging is due to
> the laws of physics.
> 
> In order to make a digital imager with the resolution of film emulsion,
> you need to get the cell size down to near the size of film grain, which
> is the size of a large molecule.

If grain is that small then I'm really amazed by Dr. T.'s viewers where
you can see the grain in stereo slides.  Seeing molecules... must be big
ones. Often *too* big.   :-)

> Refrigerating the imager in a hand-held camera is possible, but requires
> either a lot of power (to operate a heat pump, for example), which would
> limit portability by tying you to a wall socket, or drastically shorten

Not that hard. You only have to cool the chip which is very small.  You
could just attach (or integrate on the same chip) an electronic cooler
(the principle escapes my brain at the moment... they're used in el-cheapo
Igloo picnic coolers now... but only a very tiny version is needed to keep
the very small featherweight chip cool ).

One also can just make the imaging chip bigger instead.

> The current crop of CCD-based imagers (Charge Coupled Device) has pretty
> much reached its practical limits.  There will probably need to be a
> breakthrough in materials technology before digital imaging will achieve
> the quality of film with the same or better east-of-use at competitive
> cost.

Kodak has decent digital cameras now -- some of which are used by a 
few professional photographers (based on magazine stories).  Cost is too
high currently -- but the price of the low end has been dropping rapidly
with quality going up.

I firmly believe that ten/fifteen years from now that digital cameras of adequately
good quality will be widely available and of reasonable price.

I'm not too sure of the DSP based stereo one... that'll depend on the marketplace.
Maybe the Leica version will be that way.  But it could be done then.

Mike K.



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