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The real limitation is the number of colors that can be distinguished by the human eye. I've read that medical scanners and other science-y imaging gear can sa
by csense 14y ago
The real limitation is the number of colors that can be distinguished by the human eye. I've read that medical scanners and other science-y imaging gear can sample intensity with 16-bit resolution.
But if you're talking about hardware whose sole purpose is displaying images for humans to view, having more than 8 bits is just a waste of resources.
- majormajor 14y agoThere's plenty of room for increased dynamic range, if not more colors, than what 8 bits per channel gives us. See raw files from digital cameras, HDR, etc.
- Dylan16807 14y agoI might buy 10 bits, but it's pretty easy to distinguish 8-bit brightness levels. Edit: Found a source quoting 450 light levels the eye can distinguish, so adding a bit of buffer for smooth transitions and imperfect gamma you'd need 10 or 12 bits.
- liuliu 14y agoAlso it depends on the color, for blue, 8 bits may be sufficient, but definitely not green.
- Dylan16807 14y agoRods pick up blue just fine, so I don't think you can skimp on any color.
- mistercow 14y agoRed is picked up about half as well as green, and blue is discerned about half as well as red. You can definitely skimp on blue.
- Dylan16807 14y agoI strongly disagree. Blue is less bright to rods, that's it. If you happen to be looking at even gray, then sure the fact that blue seems a quarter as bright means you can chop off two bits. But if you look at pictures that are blue, without a lot of other colors to wash it out, you're going to have the exact same 450 distinct brightness levels over the 100:1 contrast ratio that the eye picks up.
- mistercow 14y agoLot's of cameras can capture more than 8 bpc too, but there's no point in displaying them that way. The reason it's useful is that it reduces loss of quality when manipulating the colors in the images.
- Terretta 14y agoNot just "science-y" imaging gear. I'm scanning slides today with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED, and it's a full 16 bits per channel of R, G, and B, and 16 bits of infrared (48 bits + 16 bits). The "raw" TIFFs are 182 MB, while the final JPEGs range between 2.2 and 6.9 MB.