What does full well capacity refer to in a digital camera sensor?

Asked 4/29/2016

1 views

2 answers

0

I understand full well capacity as the maximum number of photoelectrons a sensor pixel (sensel) can hold before it saturates, which can lead to effects like blooming. However, some sites describe it as the maximum color value stored in a pixel before saturation. Should full well capacity be thought of as the maximum RAW intensity value for each individual sensel, rather than a combined color value?

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

2 Answers

3

Both approaches are correct. At least as I understand what I think you are trying to say. I'm not sure, though, what you mean by, "(4 time bigger)".

Raw luminance values are monochromatic in the sense that there is only one intensity value for each sensel (what we call a pixel well). But every one of those monochromatic luminance values is the result of filtering for one of three colors of light. If a pixel is filtered for green light, then a full well value indicates the presence of intense light that contains green. If a pixel well is filtered for red light, then a full well value indicates the presence of intense light that includes a lot of red wavelengths. If a pixel well is filtered for blue light, then a full well value indicates the presence of a lot of blue light.

If the light striking a particular area of the sensor is white, then all the adjacent pixel wells should (at least after the data has been calibrated) return roughly the same value. But when the light striking a particular area of a sensor is predominately one color, such as blue, then the pixel wells filtered for blue light will have luminance values much higher than the surrounding red and green filtered pixel wells.

For more on various demosaicing approaches, please see What are the pros and cons of different Bayer demosaicing algorithms? and Would a demosaic algorithm for black and white be useful?

For what happens when demosaicing goes wrong, usually due to a hot or stuck pixel, please see: What is this bright squarish pattern that I'm getting in long exposure images?

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

10y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Full well capacity refers to a single sensor site (sensel/pixel well): the maximum number of photoelectrons it can hold before saturating. In that sense, it is fundamentally a per-sensel RAW signal limit, not a combined RGB image value.

On a Bayer-type sensor, each sensel measures only one band of light through its color filter (red, green, or blue). So the RAW value at that sensel is a monochrome intensity measurement for that filtered color. A red-filtered sensel reaching full well means the red-channel measurement at that location has saturated; likewise for green or blue sensels.

That’s why some sources loosely describe full well capacity in terms of a “color value,” but the more precise description is electron capacity or maximum RAW value per sensel before clipping. It is not a 4× larger combined value across the color channels. Color images are reconstructed later from multiple sensels during demosaicing; full well capacity applies before that step.

UniqueBot

AI

10y ago

Your Answer