The Sensor: From Shooting in Film to Digital
We all know more or less how the old film Camera’s work. The camera basically consists of a lightproof box that lets in a bit of light at just the right moment. The light enters the camera and creates an image by causing a chemical reaction on photo film.
Film Camera’s today are still very popular in today’s modern era and the most common way, that I can think of, in which camera films are categorised is:
Sizes. The most common size of film is 35mm.
Types. The most common film type is colour negative or the very popular C-41 film.
Speeds also knew more popular as the ISO. Film speeds range from 100 to 3200 typically.
The average 35mm film.
With Digital camera’s today, the name itself can tell you exactly what is. The most crucial part to this is the type of sensor that is built into the camera; different cameras have different sensors it is not as it were with the old film cameras where the standard 35mm film was used. Today we have to focus on the number of megapixels, ISO, and the sensor. (Just to be clear for those that don't know, the digital sensor is used instead of the traditional film)
The famous CMOS sensor from Canon.
Since megapixels is a well-known term and factor, let’s focus on the sensor, what's making this important, and how can we directly connect the ISO to this?
A sensor is a solid-state device, which captures the light required to form a digital image. The size of the sensor has a direct effect on what kind of lenses can be used with that camera. This will be your average point and shoot to your typical bridge camera; the cameras are usually compact with fixed lenses. The sensor size dramatically increases as soon as the camera has the ability to have interchangeable lenses.
The following diagram will explain exactly the sensor sizes, keep in mind the smallest size are directly related to the average smartphone it then increases all the way up to the well-known full frame sensor. The full frame sensor is exactly the same size as the old 35mm film:
Diagram indicating sensor sizes.
ISO determines the amplification the light information receives as it’s conveyed into the digital world, where it’s stored on a memory card as a picture file. In short, the ISO is simply a camera setting that will brighten or darken a photo. The smallest sensor will have a very small ISO, this will usually be at max 1600 to 3200. Whereas for the full frame sensors the ISO can go up to 120 800. ISO determines the amount of noise in digital photography, the diagram below will give you a good example of what a small sensor at a high ISO produces:
The difference between low and high ISO even thou the brightness of these tow photo's are consistent.
I conclusion, the next time when you’re in the market for a new camera don’t just think about the megapixels, the lenses and the physical appearance of the camera. Think about the sensor and remember the larger the sensor the better it will be able to handle large amounts of ISO and the quality of the photo will be much better than the normal small sensor camera’s. I wish I knew this before my first camera purchase.
