With the popularization of digital cameras, we witnessed numerous discussions about the precision of human eye e.g. how many “megapixels” a human eye has? There are several answers on-line, but general consensus is that a single human eye has between 105 and 126 million rods and cones, e.g. “126 MPixels”. This number was extremely impressive at the time when most digital cameras had 1.3 MPixels, and still is impressive, with the world’s consumer cameras passing the 10 million barrier.
But, RED is the company that intends to do things differently. A while ago, I wrote a small piece announcing the revolution of digital cinema and digital photography in general – RED introducing their “double o” (Obsolescence Obsolete) concept.
At the top of the future line-up stands RED 617, powered by single CMOS sensor in “beyond huge” category (9744mm2). What didn’t made the news then was the fact that this single CMOS sensor actually features a higher resolution than human eye… both of them. According to Jim Jannard, founder of RED, RED 617 Mysterium Monstro features 261,352,000 pixels, while both human eyes feature 252 million rods/cones. In short – RED 617 has 135 million pixels more than a single human eyes.
Is this the first sensor to offer higher resolution than the human eye? Believe it or not, but the answer is yes.
Thus, digital will overtake analog in 2009, when RED 617-powered cameras debut. Just one small disclaimer for the end: this story is about optical resolution – if you want to discuss fidelity, that’s the field of infinites for the human eye, so we won’t go there ;-Can a di
