Sunday, June 26, 2011

The argument for prism-based color cameras

There are three options when it comes to color linescan: a form of Bayer filter over the sensor, the trilinear sensor (red, blue and green side-by-side,) or the prism. The Bayer is clearly a budget approach but how do you compare trilinear and prism?

Well you could take a look at an animated movie put together by Danish camera-maker JAI.  This shows the basic operating principles of each and summarizes the weaknesses of the trilinear method. It seems pretty logical to me, although it might be worth noting that JAI have spent a lot of money on a prism-sensor assembly process. (Their NIR-visible cameras are a clever use of the technology.) But perhaps they did that because the prism approach is more robust.

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