Optics

LukeyKid

I was bored so i looked up "In theory if your could relate the human eye to megapixels, how many megapixels do we see in" and the thing i red it off said something like 327 megapixels or something i don't no if that right or wrong, then i was trying to look up how many megapixels does a studio/movie camera use because i wanted to compare even though it wouldn't be realistic.
But when i found the some tread saying that the cameras used to film Avatar where only 2.2 Megapixels i was completely confused, if there only 2.2 Megapixels how do are average phones have 5 MP ? I'm probably being really stupid about it but i'm really confused..

Some one please explain this to me, be much appreciated..

CreepingDeath

I think your confusion comes from the fact that measuring image quality by megapixels doesn't take into account pixel density.

Eg. 2 Megapixels is around 1600 x 1200 resolution on a laptop screen.

Squash those 2 megapixels into the size of a phone and you've a very high quality display where your eye cannot discern one pixel easily because it's so small. I believe the term is something like pixels per inch.

But blow that 2 megapixels up into a cinema screen, and the pixels are the size of footballs.

The human eye needs very high density / high resolution vision to pick out small details at long distances, mainly to see predators/prey in advance.

For camera, the higher the megapixels, the more detail.
All that detail means you can print off bigger photos without them becoming pixelated and looking blocky.

LukeyKid

CreepingDeath wrote: »

I think your confusion comes from the fact that measuring image quality by megapixels doesn't take into account pixel density.

Eg. 2 Megapixels is around 1600 x 1200 resolution on a laptop screen.

Squash those 2 megapixels into the size of a phone and you've a very high quality display where your eye cannot discern one pixel easily because it's so small. I believe the term is something like pixels per inch.

But blow that 2 megapixels up into a cinema screen, and the pixels are the size of footballs.

The human eye needs very high density / high resolution vision to pick out small details at long distances, mainly to see predators/prey in advance.

For camera, the higher the megapixels, the more detail.
All that detail means you can print off bigger photos without them becoming pixelated and looking blocky.

Thanks man but still little confused I understand that the screen of a phone's need lot of PPI to look good but what in mainly confused about is that the quality of the big movie cameras are insane. So how do they get that quality from 2.2 MP?? And I don't no if there's a high difference but I'm fairly sure 2.2 MP is 1920x1080?? Correct me if I'm wrong..

But that's man for you comment getting there with understanding

Resolution is only one aspect of image quality. It's very low on the list.

Sensor size and optics are much more important. A digital cinema camera has a much bigger sensor than your phone or compact camera. It's capturing much more light through much better optics. And every frame is being stored uncompressed (or with very light compression) with a higher bit-depth and better samping rate than your camphone.

Farmer

"Dougal These cows are small - Those cows are far away"

Your 1080 TV is crystal clear even if you stand right in front of it
Your cinema screen is crystal clear at the closest distance you'll get sitting to it



They both take up about the same area in your eye

PS: Don't compare 'static' camera pixels with 'moving' and flickering (25-30Hz)video pixels which will get smoothed out due to a combination of movement and persistence of vision

LukeyKid

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Resolution is only one aspect of image quality. It's very low on the list.

Sensor size and optics are much more important. A digital cinema camera has a much bigger sensor than your phone or compact camera. It's capturing much more light through much better optics. And every frame is being stored uncompressed (or with very light compression) with a higher bit-depth and better samping rate than your camphone.

Thank you some it up really well I appreciate all answer thanks lads