matthew ward wrote:
I can never quite get my head around this term used for multishot captures. There is surely some interpolation involved. If there were no interpolation, would it not be three shot? As I understand it (possibly the worlds smallest knowledgebase :-)), the second (green) capture is often used to boost the blue channel? If this is not interpolation what is it called?
There very well may be some form of interpolation to integrate the values from the two green samples - but, in contrast to single shot captures where two every three colors for each pixel is created via interpolation by the software, multi-shot systems sample all three colors at each pixel site. (I'm using multi-shot to indicate the micro-stepping type of multiple shot systems on the market - I don't know if anyone is still marketing the old filter wheel systems anymore)
Imacon used to have a good piece of literature that compared single shot, multiple shot and multiple step captures with samples of each. The differences are remarkable - multi-step systems - well calibrated - produce sharper images with fewer artifacts in areas of high contrast, and more accurate color than single-shot systems.
The makers of these systems really don't have an interest in making single-shot systems look bad - I think that every multi-shot system on the market has the capability to shoot in single-shot mode when necessary. And, lets face it - we all need single-shot capture on occasion. You just can't keep everything from moving for four exposures.
We use multi-shot capture whenever we can. We see a difference in our images, and the prepress people that get our images see a difference in what we bring in over some of our competitors. Virtually all studio tabletop work we do is in four shot - lots of footwear and sporting goods that are really prone to moire due to the number of textures and materials. It doesn't really take any longer than single-shot when you consider that the extra time it takes to shoot the four captures is offset by the instant appearance of the image on screen - you're not waiting for the processor to interpolate and assemble the image.
Works well for us...
Jeff Smith
Smith/Walker Design and Photography
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