The First Digital Imaging Medium:

(or the original, all-digital "CCD" ....... a Dose of Digital Reality)

DIGITAL is expressed in binary terms: one or zero, on or off, high or low etc. For years, we have been using digital equipment in a post production environments to generate titles and manipulate images (including special effects). It is also very common to edit digitally using computers. We can also transmit and distribute video digitally in a wide variety of ways. We can even project images digitally using the Texas Instruments DLP (micro-mirror) system. And of course, it is common practice to record audio and video digitally. However, videographers do not, as yet, shoot with digital cameras. That statement might seem a little outrageous to many people, or even just plain wrong. Or is it ..... let me explain.

After all, since the 1980's, video cameras have been commonly equipped with imaging chips. These chips have been divided into a very fine grid of individual picture elements, which we now call pixels. However this might come as a surprise to some, the sensors for those pixels remain ANALOG ...... as their electrical outputs vary continuously based on the amount of light falling on them.

So is there, in fact, a wholly digital imaging medium - one that deals only with truly digital "on" or "off" states? As a matter of fact, there is. It is capable of extraordinary detail - far beyond that of HDTV. It is also capable of an extremely wide dynamic range, thanks to the use of a huge numbers of individual senors that react to different amounts of light. Each sensor is capable of only being either "on" or "off". And the total number of sensors cover a vast tonal and color range.

What is this amazing digital imaging medium? The sensors are called grains. The medium is called film.

Based on an article by Mark Schubin in VIDEOGRAPHY magazine, August, 2000, pp 25

Peter Gray
(near Los Angeles)
P.O. Box 5132
Pine Mountain Club, CA 93222
United States of America
telephone: +1(661) 242-1234

dp@petergray.org