Adjusting settings.. a direct impact on sensor?

[QuietWorg]

hi everyone,

I am wondering, does changing setting on a digital camera , (such as saturation) affect directly how the sensor acts and collects the raw image data, or is it a sort of post processing done on the sensor data in real time in the camera ..? :D

I have searched to find more information on this , but not coming up with much, perhaps searching using the wrong lingo!

I would be grateful for an answer and if possible some sources where I could learn more on this particular topic!

Thank you!

[SpecialK]

Your camera settings only affect the jpg processing in the camera.

[QuietWorg]

Excellent, thank you for the reply..! Are there any websites / sources you(anyone!) know of which confirm this,


Or maybe this is abvious:confused:

Thanks again :)

[Paradox]

The sensor is just a physical capture device. The way it observes light can't be modified directly, only by either putting a filter in front of the sensor to alter the light hitting it, or through processing of the image in the camera after the picture is taken.

[mattdm]

hi everyone,

I am wondering, does changing setting on a digital camera , (such as saturation) affect directly how the sensor acts and collects the raw image data, or is it a sort of post processing done on the sensor data in real time in the camera ..? :D


For most things, like saturation, it's a matter of how the data read from the sensor is post-processed. This is why one might use "RAW" image formats -- you can change any of these sorts of options after the fact without any loss, and see what works best for a particular image.

However, for ISO sensitivity, it's a change to how the sensor collects the data in the first place.

[Paradox]

As far as I know, changing the ISO alters how the electrical pulses generated by the sensor are amplified, so it isn't really a direct alteration of the sensor itself, is it?

[QuietWorg]

As far as I know, changing the ISO alters how the electrical pulses generated by the sensor are amplified, so it isn't really a direct alteration of the sensor itself, is it?

Yes, you are correct! (after I googled this, many confirm)

Thank you all for your help:)

[Margus]

As far as I know, changing the ISO alters how the electrical pulses generated by the sensor are amplified, so it isn't really a direct alteration of the sensor itself, is it?

This seems partially true - CMOS sensors include the signal amplification and possibly some additional image processing as opposed to CCD sensors. Here's a link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS_sensor) for additional reading.

Margus

[mattdm]

As far as I know, changing the ISO alters how the electrical pulses generated by the sensor are amplified, so it isn't really a direct alteration of the sensor itself, is it?

I guess it it depends where you draw the line of what you mean by changing how the sensor acts. The amplification is done when the sensor is read, and can't be done in two different ways on the same data. So, while that in some ways is "post-processing done in real time", it's a useful distinction to make because it's unlike settings which can be altered in RAW post-processing.

[SpecialK]

Excellent, thank you for the reply..! Are there any websites / sources you(anyone!) know of which confirm this,


Or maybe this is abvious:confused:

Thanks again :)

Any thread on this forum or any other about jpg versus RAW processing. You can start here.

http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8152