Thing is, the decision to use a 22bit ADC could translate into flexibility/simplification of the K10D's internals. For example, you could get away without using analog ISO amps, doing all multiplications digitally. In fact, this may have been an engineering decision that simply got picked up by someone in marketing.
The same thing happens with 12 bits averaged over an area, the underlying average will have greater accuracy than the individual samples.
Number look sort of in the ballpark. From some measurements of the 1DII (Clark), I estimate the FWC of the 40D (taking into account pixel size) to be about 25k e at base ISO. Read noise is a bit harder to guess, but charitably might be 8 e(?) giving 11.6 bits DR. A 14 bit sample with 11.6 bit DR would have the last 2 bits fluctuate quite randomly. If you took the 12 bit sample and added 2 bits with some dither, you could fill up the gaps. Since in the 14bit sample, the 2 smallest bits are noise, you achieve very much the same effect. The 12 bit sample has nearly all the information as the 14 bit sample.
I'm not talking about post-processing the RAW, of course minimizing arithmetic round-off error is important by doing calculations with high bit depth, but I'm talking about the information contained within the actual RAW file.
Yeah, if the DR of your system is 14bit. If your sensor is limited to around a 70dB ratio then there is no point in 14bit per se (assuming you're AFE amps are doing a good job)
Yes, theoretically a bit more than 3dB loss compared to optimal.
Except that you don't know how efficient the chemicals are at capturing photons... My understanding is that CCDs are already much better...
So what's it going to take for us to see the tonality and DR of negative film? I still feel that film has better aesthetic qualities in these areas, especially B&W. Are we going to have to wait for new sensor technology to arrive? Or a B&W sensor, that'd be cool
Although what you said is basically true about bodies, the only way Sony is going to make a "big difference" in its competitive position in this marketplace is with a substantial improvement in, and enlargement of, its current (non-)system. Having a camera body which is technically more advanced (for a few months) is not going to sway a pro who needs lenses or a FF camera that can be rented anywhere (just one example) or even a consumer with some investment in lenses and flashes of another system.
Yes, poor Canon....who' only had an "amateur" 12.8 MP body out for two years already. What will they ever do now?!!
