Pixel size and dynamic range

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Originally Posted by klitza

I asked the question because I, while a chemical physicist, am a neophyte when it comes to cameras. A recent discussion, perhaps in dphoto review, remarked that Panasonic had cut back the number of pixels in its "travel" cameras, and opined that that would lead to better dynamic range. This sounded unlikely to me. Indeed, it's at the other, the noise end of the spectrum, where any such improvement might be found.

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Fair enough you were querying a common misconception.

Living in the country I use the analogy of rain falling on a roof being collected in a tank that is large enough for a heavy downpour. Divide the roof in two and feed the collected water into two separate tanks half the size of the original and they will still have the capacity to cope with a heavy downpour. All other things being equal.

The ability to accurately determine the volume in each tank is related to other factors, very little to do with the roof area used to collect the water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by klitza

IA recent discussion, perhaps in dphoto review, remarked that Panasonic had cut back the number of pixels in its "travel" cameras, and opined that that would lead to better dynamic range.

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I'm not sure of the qualifications of most camera reviewers on the camera review sites, but in general I would say that their knowledge of physics and electrical engineering is pretty meager. With some of the nonsense we see there from time to time, I would take a lot of what is written there, with a grain of salt.

I suspect you might have noticed that some of the members here do have these types of backgrounds and some of the discussions can sometimes degenerate into minutia and other forms of hair splitting.

A P.S. to my roof analogy above. I was indicting a situation where no overall roof area was lost in dividing it in two. This analogy is more appropriate for the newer back-illuminated sensors. With the traditional sensor design increasing pixel count will usually result in a loss of effective overall light collection area "roof area".