[ale] OT: camcorder/camera combos

[Jeff Hubbs]

On Wed, 2002-12-11 at 03:29, Eric Webb wrote:

> (Does anyone know if all CCDs are essentially analog in nature, or are there 
> some that are truly digital?)

If by "truly digital" you mean that photons get translated into a binary
word where they land, then, no. :)

I'm working from memory from long ago here, but IIRC, CCD imagers charge
up what is in effect a grid of capacitors, then photons come around and
bonk some of the electrons away from eachone.  It then becomes a matter
of reading off the remaining potential, and the amount of potential lost
is proportional to the amount of photon impingement.  It's kind of a
solid-state re-implementation of the Orthicon tube.

- Jeff

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