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Sigma DP1 Merrill limited to 14.8 Mp for most scenes?

Started Sep 19, 2016 | Discussions thread
Tom Schum
Tom Schum Forum Pro • Posts: 13,282
Re: Sigma DP1 Merrill limited to 14.8 Mp for most scenes?
1

Sigma counts "pixels" in ways that confuse people.

The final hi-res image of the Merrill sensor is 14.75 megapixels.

Each of these pixels contains complete color information and on the sensor it is three layers deep (that is, there are three photosensors per pixel). Sigma likes to count all three as pixels and so they call this a 45 megapixel sensor.

Can't really blame Sigma though, because regular color filter array sensor pixel counts aren't listed this way: "20mp green, 10mp blue, and 10mp red, for a wonderful 40mp image".

Regardless of how the pixels are counted, the final hi-res result is 14.75 megapixels.

Also available is a 2x2 binned smaller image (lo-res) of 3.7 megapixels.

Similar things go on when we try to count the pixels on the other Sigma sensors. It's tricky.

The Quattro sensor (hi-res) is 19.6mp top layer, 4.9mp middle layer, and 4.9mp bottom layer, while in lo-res it is supposedly 4.9mp top layer, 4.9mp middle layer, and 4.9mp bottom layer.

In the same wording: the Merrill sensor is 14.75mp top layer, 14.75mp middle layer, and 14.75mp bottom layer.

Are we confused yet?

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Tom Schum
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