Re: digital camera noise

From: Chris L Peterson (clp_at_alumni.caltech.edu)
Date: 11/10/04 

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 02:15:19 GMT

On Tue, 09 Nov 2004 20:35:52 -0500, RichA <none@none.com> wrote:

>Don't worry. The only cameras that still have such pathetic
>resolutions are expensive "astro" cameras and second-rate $50 webcams.

The pixel count of the chip has nothing to do with resolution. Webcams, for
instance, at around 640x480 are used to produce some of the highest resolution
images you can produce from the surface of the Earth. You pick a combination of
optics and sensor to produce the resolution you need, and then the chip size
determines the FOV. If your object fits in that field, a larger chip in wasted.
Some of my highest resolution images were made with an ST6.

Big chips with lots of pixels are nice for wide-field imagers. But that isn't
everyone, and the vast majority of DSOs will comfortably fit on an oversampled
640x480 sensor. I'd love to have a DSLR that performs as well as my 300D but has
1/4 as many pixels (with each pixel four times larger). For what I image, 6MP is
way too many, and the pixels are too small. For my serious imaging I use an
ST8i. I haven't bought a larger camera because I would have no use for it- and
even the ST8i I nearly always operate binned 2x2.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

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