Approach

Given the consumer-focused way in which we have stated our problem, it is reasonable to design an experimental approach by first thinking about what image properties would be most important to consumers. Then, we can determine how to characterize the imaging system (i.e., the camera) by assessing what camera properties impact those image properties. The following table summarizes the key elements of this study:

Each of the camera characteristics in the top two rows was assessed for both the D70 and the Digital Rebel in this study. The next section explains the methodology for making these measurements and calculations.

A detailed study of sensor noise would have been extremely relevant to this project, especially because of the contradiction between those who claim that CMOS sensors are inherently noisier than CCDs and the large number of amateur and prosumer photographers who claim that the Nikon D70 "can't match the EOS 300D's silky smooth ISO 100" in terms of low noise image capture. Unfortunately, time constraints and data inconsistency issues prevented a detailed noise study with verifiable conclusions (which would include examination of dark current, dark signal nonuniformity, photo response nonuniformity, read noise, and other parameters). This would be a good future direction for this work.