Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

Highlights and CCD Sensitivity

A smaller but noticeable problem with CCD cameras is with highlights. Chrome reflec-

tions, the sun, and any bright sources of light result in bright vertical streaks on digital

images. This problem is calledblooming(see Figure 2.8). The pixels where the high-

lights occur “wash out” and spill over into adjacent pixels in the array. The result is

sharp vertical streaks. This occurs often in CCD astronomy and images of chrome.

Newer, more advanced CCDs on today’s digital cameras can overcome this CCD prob-

lem using an anti-blooming gate designed to bleed off overflow from a saturated pixel.

Less expensive cameras, however, produce a bright spot and a vertical streak.

CHAPTER 2 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL CAMERAS 23

FIGURE 2.8
One form of
blooming
unique to Fuji’s
Super HAD
hexagonal
sensors.

Digital Camera Technologies and Standards

The most beneficial part of digital photography is the instant results. Every photog-

rapher benefits from being able to check whether a picture came out. The obvious

second largest benefit to digital is, of course, no film! This means no high prices on

the front end and no high cost of developing on the back end. But did you know a

number of technologies included in every digital camera also enable you to obtain

even faster, better prints and lower costs?

This section discusses several not-so-well-known technologies you may have seen

advertised with digital cameras. The acronyms and catchy logos probably made as