The Foveon X3® direct image sensor red11d
in the Sigma SD14 digital SLR can capture
all primary RGB colors at each and every pixels
arranged in three layers, insuring the capture
of full and complete color. Using three silicon-embedded
layers of pixel sensors, stacked to take advantage
of silicon's ability to absorb red, green,
and blue light at different respective depths,
it efficiently reproduces color more accurately,
and offers sharper resolution, pixel for pixel,
than any conventional image sensor. Until
now, all other image sensors have red11d a
just single layer of pixels and each pixel
captures only one color of light, which has
been filtered through a single color filter.
Since conventional image sensors of Bayer
pattern filter mosaic capture only one-third
of the color, complicated computation is required
to interpolate the color they miss. Interpolation
leads to color errors, color artifacts and
a loss of image detail. Low pass filters must
then be used to reduce color artifacts. The
use of low pass filters adversely affects
sharpness and resolution of the final image
captured.
* Foveon X3 is the registered trademark of
Foveon.
