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A better pixel is created with a lower signal-to-noise ratio and has a greater bit depth. A better pixel produces an image that is smooth and can accurately replicate what the lens was designed to create. In other words, a better pixel (or arguably the best pixel) is the one that creates a final image that can be changed any way you want without compromise. Another way of understanding pixels is that a better input pixel will always produce a better output pixels. Because pixels work in concert, the increase in overall pixel count is the source of where manipulation, optical representation, signal to noise, bit depth and, ultimately, creative control begin. In other words, more pixels working together produce a higher quality input for each pixel. A higher quality input yields a higher quality output. If a better pixel is measured by its output, its ‘better’ qualifier is only enhanced when more pixels live at the source. Therefore, the statement, ‘We don’t want more pixels, we want better pixels’ is tremendously flawed. cinematography and what is its relationship to what the eye sees? Dan Sasaki: In cinematography, the four second rule applies to the principle that there is an average number of seconds between cuts within a scene of a movie. Within this short period of time, a cinematographer needs to deliver his image with purpose and with enough intent that a casual viewer can notice the differences both artistically and aesthetically. This is unlike looking at an oil painting where the viewer has the option of examining the work of art for an indefinite period of time. Definition: What does the ‘four second rule’ govern in
criteria of a lens design does not need to go higher. In fact, it is in our best interest to create a lens with less of a peaked MTF response and one with more volume. The result of a lens with more MTF volume would be a lens with better depth transition between the foreground and the background. Also, by designing in certain key higher order aberrations the shading and haze depth cues will be enhanced by the lens, which in turn can create images that have a certain roundness to it. It is very tempting to design a lens with automated software that yields near-perfect image quality, but a lens designed that way takes away the individual soul a lens could have. It is almost always harder to design a lens that photographs beautifully with select imaging characteristics than one that is perfect and can reproduce lens charts flawlessly. This new class of larger, densely packaged imagers are opening up new opportunities in lens design as well as enabling cinematographers to create images not realised by standard 35mm format capture. Definition: Why doesn’t the saying ‘We don’t want more pixels, we want better pixels’ make sense any more? MC: In order to understand the claim, ‘We don’t want more pixels we want better pixels’, we need to be able to measure it. Assuming the quantifiable term in this statement is the word ‘better’, we need to define what actually makes a pixel better. At Panavision and Light Iron, we believe a better pixel is one that offers a better-quality output. A better pixel is one that has more dynamic range, more malleability and more range of manipulation.
MORE PIXELS WORKING TOGETHER PRODUCE A HIGHER QUALITY INPUT FOR EACH PIXEL
is due in part to the microsaccade process that our eyes are continuously going through. The motion acts as a sampling process in which our brains can interpret the moving images and form a map of detail that is higher than a static view could produce. Definition: How does this theory apply to lens design? DS: If we take the three components mentioned earlier: magnification, perspective and resolution/contrast, the design of a lens can be varied to match the evolution of photographic optics – that has been known for years. Historically, as we moved to larger format imagers (film or digital) we would encounter more inverse magnification and as a result lenses would not require as much perfection to yield beautiful images. As we move to larger sensors with more densely packed pixels, the MTF
ABOVE The relationship between magnification, perspective and resolution produces dimensionality.
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