Can a digital camera capture multiple ISO levels in a single exposure for HDR?

Asked 4/30/2017

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If ISO in a digital camera is mostly signal amplification rather than the sensor becoming more sensitive, could a camera capture the same exposure at two different ISO settings at once and save them as separate images? I'm wondering whether this is technically possible and, if so, why it isn't common. It seems like it could help create single-shot HDR images without ghosting, especially for moving subjects.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

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Yes, it's entirely possible, and it has in fact been done with Magic Lantern's "dual-ISO" mode. But you can't get two images simultaneously. What you get are two half-images.

This leads to drawbacks. The way it's implemented in ML's dual-ISO mode is that alternating pairs of scanlines use different ISO settings. The problem is that you then have to interpolate the data to get a usable image, so you are going to have a loss of resolution in highlights/shadows, and aliasing and moire issues.

But, yes, this method does give you single-shot HDR without any ghosting/clone issues, and makes HDR video possible.

Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user27440

9y ago

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Yes—this is technically possible, but it depends on how the camera reads the sensor. In most digital cameras, changing ISO mainly changes the amplification applied to the sensor signal before or during analog-to-digital conversion; the light captured by the sensor is the same.

Because of that, simply saving the same exposure at two ISO values often doesn’t create much new information from a normal raw capture—you can already brighten or darken raw data later. The tradeoff is that higher amplification reduces available dynamic range.

There are special implementations, though. Magic Lantern’s dual-ISO mode is a well-known example: alternating sensor rows are read at different ISO settings, then combined into one HDR image. This allows single-shot HDR and can avoid ghosting, but it comes with drawbacks such as interpolation, reduced effective resolution in some tones, and possible aliasing or moiré.

Some sensors also use dual-gain or multiple-ADC designs to improve dynamic range from one exposure, but that requires specific sensor hardware and adds cost/complexity. So the idea is real and useful, just not standard in most still cameras.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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