It's not part of the optics (since you can't move the lightwells) but I think it's still part of the analog system, so it's different from working on pixel or Bayer values.
If you reconfigure the sensor without cropping you do not end up with a zoomed image, just with a reduced resolution one. With a fixed focal length in order to zoom you need to decrease the sensor size, therefore cropping, so digital zoom
aaah interesting. Then the resolution is increased, but how does it affect the overall image quality since you have the same amount of photons in more wells ?
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Zooming a 48MP quad-Bayer camera is not exactly digital; you can reconfigure the sensor to be a different resolution.
Isn’t sensor reconfiguration still considered digital crop/zoom since it’s not part of the optical element of the camera?
When sensors with microlense arrays become more common things will definitely become more complicated tho.
We’re probably about 5 years from consumer grade MLA sensors still tho.
It's not part of the optics (since you can't move the lightwells) but I think it's still part of the analog system, so it's different from working on pixel or Bayer values.
If you reconfigure the sensor without cropping you do not end up with a zoomed image, just with a reduced resolution one. With a fixed focal length in order to zoom you need to decrease the sensor size, therefore cropping, so digital zoom
Not if you default to reduced resolution mode, then you can reconfigure to an increased one ;)
aaah interesting. Then the resolution is increased, but how does it affect the overall image quality since you have the same amount of photons in more wells ?