Quote:
Originally Posted by Shiraz
That's a very good analogy, thanks Peter
Regards ray
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No problemo.
The bucket analogy goes further (at one stage CCD's were nearly called BBD's, literally: Bucket Brigade Devices) .
It also gives good insight understanding the the dynamic range of various sensors.
Our two rain..( al la photon...) gauges, one made from a bucket, the other a cup, hold x-ml of water.
Let's say it was really raining and we captured 12cm of water...our cup is overflowing (saturated
...) so we really don't know how much rain fell...but our bucket still has a good deal of volume left before it fills so we can still quantify the downpour.
Not only that, but our (big pixel) bucket holds a good deal more water, so the number of millilitres (photons) we can measure, from empty to full, is in the thousands, compared to our cup which can only hold a few hundred at best.
In short big pixels give more signal and higher dynamic range... the rub is: to get good (angular) resolution, you'll also need big optics.