Albert Pedrosa
Photo mania
I’D LIKE to keep this column as layman as possible but there are just some topics that can’t be explained on a wider perspective. I promise I’d stay away from these types of topics as much as I can.
Lately, many photographers are surprised to hear about terminologies such as low-pass filter or anti-aliasing and moiré patterns. These are typical trend topics in the medium format category but not in DSLR. Not until Nikon launched D800E, a DSLR camera without anti-aliasing filter.
Most, if not all Digital SLR are equipped with an anti-aliasing filter found just before the sensor. The purpose of the filter is to blur a certain percentage of the details captured by the sensor. Should you remove this filter, you would encounter moiré patterns that will be created by the same patterns that the photodiode are arranged in the surface of the sensor. This occurrence will not be evident in the entire image but only where the pattern of the captured image will angle against the sensor’s pattern. In the case of medium format category, no anti-aliasing filter is applied but you can remove it through its software on-the-fly during download.
The blurring happens just before the light reaches the sensor. The process of anti-aliasing is actually the splitting of the lights so patterns are eliminated. However, through this process, details are compromised which would result to a certain percent of blurriness. This is actually applied to the entire image. Without the anti-aliasing filter, you can now capture the raw sharp image but will have to deal with the moiré patterns found in some parts of your image. Moiré patterns can be isolated and removed through a series of steps in Photoshop.
The big question is how much sharpness is achieved without the anti-aliasing filter.
Is this enough to justify the additional cost and do some extra steps in post processing? One photographer was asking why D800E is more expensive when a certain component, anti-aliasing filter, is removed. Nikon actually didn’t just removed the component but instead replaced it with another component that reverses it.
Lately, a lot of people are emailing me about Nikon and Canon comparison.
Photographer, Lito Insu even took time to shoot and compare photos taken from Nikon D3s and 5D II. You can check out his conclusion and initial decision in his facebook page. Get well soon Lito!
In the email I received from Mr. Tony Padua of Lapu-Lapu City, he said that he still stands in the idea that it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer. I totally agree with this. Just like the case of having a good oven wouldn’t give you better food.
However, an advanced camera in the hands of an experienced photographer would definitely be a perfection.
Keep on shooting everyone and keep those emails coming. For comments and suggestions, you may email me at photography@grp.ph