Profiling CMOS vs. CCD Digital Cameras

Although introduced commercially in 1995, digital camera sensors that use complimentary metal oxide � semiconductor (CMOS) chips have become increasingly popular in mid-range and professional digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, gradually replacing older charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors. Manufacturers claim that CMOS sensors have higher light sensitivity that results in greater shadow detail with less noise. This study sought to determine if � CMOS-equipped DSLR cameras have a larger color gamut and produce more accurate ICC profiles than CCD cameras. The authors also tested the effects of other variables, including lighting (LED, fluorescent, and incandescent), lighting evenness, use of a polarizing filter, turning off settings in Adobe Camera Raw, and outputting � captures into different Camera Raw standard working space profiles.

The authors assessed the accuracy of ICC camera profiles by comparing original to captured color values. Profile � accuracy (Table 1) is expressed as the average delta-E color difference between original and captured color values of a Macbeth ColorChecker SG 140-patch color target.