According to technology experts John Galt and Larry Thorpe, we've been looking at HD cameras all wrong

When trying to select the right camera for your next project, perhaps it’s time to throw out all of the specs about pixel counts and instead look at the difference between optical sampling from the camera’s imagers (where resolution is totally determined) and its digital sampling.
That’s the basic premise behind a seven-part series entitled “Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications,” which details the complex science of image resolution and digital cinema cameras. The series is now available on the Panavision website.

Digital cinema technology experts John Galt, Panavision senior vice president, advanced digital imaging, and Larry Thorpe, national marketing manager, Canon Broadcast & Communication Division, present the in-depth symposium. Both say there’s a need for a “scientifically valid, objective method” of assessing the quality of digital and film images.

Recorded in high-definition video, the symposium was originally held on April 3 in the Panavision Theater in Woodland Hills, CA.

Among the key topics discussed are: Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) and the compounding effect of lens MTF, camera MTF, and the MTF of subsequent production system elements.

Their discussion emphasizes the relationship between the lens-camera MTF profile and associated residual aliasing-in both the horizontal and vertical domains-and how, in their opinion, it constitutes the only rational metric on imaging resolution. These two criteria apply to all 2/3-inch three-imager and to 35mm single-imager digital cameras. Nyquist theory, optical prefiltering and imager sampling lattice are explained in the context of camera design criteria that seek a pragmatic compromise between high MTF and minimum aliasing.

Using the MTF metric, Galt and Thorpe conclude, digital movie makers now have better tools to help them gauge precisely what effect each step has on the production of the final image.

In addition to appearing on the Panavision website, the “Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications” series is being made available through various professional, trade and media Internet sites. For film schools, students and instructors, it is being showcased through the University Film and Video Association (www.ufva.org/, in the news section).