Is CMOS as good as CCD?

Camera purists will tell you that the image from a CMOS sensor is inferior to that from a CCD. I’m not going to argue, because I suspect that, in absolute terms, it’s correct. However, I’ll take a different approach and suggest that the difference is so small it doesn’t matter. And if it does matter, compensation can be applied right in the CMOS camera.

A good place to learn about the differences and possible methods of compensation is on the Adimec blog, specifically, “CCD vs. CMOS: Image Artifacts to Consider with CMOS Image Sensors” posted August 24^th, 2012. (Be sure to click the links provided.)

And why doesn’t the inferiority of CMOS matter? Because you should be engineering your systems with plenty of robustness. If a few random defective pixels are going to alter the result I would suggest you’re right on the edge rather than in the stable, predictable zone. Apply a filter to smooth out the noise, optimize your lighting; those are the kinds of things you could do.

And I think you should want to, because CMOS has two big advantages: lower price and higher frame rate. But if you really need the best, go with CCD.