Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/10

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Digital cameras and Interchangable lenses?
From: Ken Iisaka <kiisaka@pacbell.net>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 21:31:18 -0800

> The "bucket" shaped CCDs and the need for
> parallel light rays sounds like hooey to me. The play in the mount
causing
> problems again is not true. Light behaves the same regardless of the
medium
> which is used to record it. Film, CCD, glass plate, whatever. CCDs do
not
> need light to be "more" focused than film! Depth of field changes with
image
> magnification and aperture not recording material.

The explanation is indeed hooey, but there is a need for a low-pass
filter in front of the light-sensitive elements in order to avoid
aliasing.  This is pretty much the same as A/D sampling in audio, and an
attempt to record a higher frequency than the threshold would result in
aliasing.

However, the low-pass filter, which looks like a very thin ground glass
(often a bundle of glass fibres) is not part of the image forming
optical system, and is itself not a explanation why normal 35mm
photography lenses are not suitable for digital photography.  As John
wrote, the size of the CCD, thus controlling the angle of field is the
main issue.