How does VideometerLab compare to my smartphone camera?
Current smartphone cameras will typically have around 14 Mpix resolution. How does this compare to the VideometerLab 5, 6, and 9.1 Mpix? Obviously, it is quite different devices and for different uses, but we will outline the major differences in the camera sensor
VideometerLab vs. smartphone camera – camera sensor
The camera sensor is obviously only a small yet important part of a VideometerLab spectral imaging instrument. Comparing specs of the sensor chip in the camera with commodity cameras may be useful in avoiding misinterpretations.
When your smartphone camera specs at 14 Mpix, then this means that the camera chip has 14 million pixels. These are divided between the red, green, and blue channels through a Bayer mosaic filter on the camera chip (as shown in the image above). This will typically mean that there are 7 million green pixels, 3,5 million red pixels, and 3,5 million blue pixels.
If you compare this to the VideometerLab with 6 Mpix per channel and 20 channels. Then Videometer’s instrument is equivalent to a 120 Mpix camera as 120 million pixel values are sampled in every image.
Comparison of pixel sensor area
Another difference is the pixel sensor area. Current smartphones may e.g. have a pixel sensor area on the chip of 1.5 x 1.5 micron, and the instruments cameras have a size of 3.5-5 micron squared. Thus the Videometer will typically have 5-10 times higher pixel sensor area and thus 5-10 times higher sensitivity.