Anatomy of a CMOS Sensor & Welcome to the Blog!

Good morning! Or maybe afternoon or evening. Who am I to say when you should read this? At any time of day, I just want to say, I love a good infographic. Visual data. The conversion of boring numbers in small gray rectangles to something palatable, even exciting. If the numbers are exciting or interesting, they should look like it, right? Maybe that's superficial. Sometimes though, it's not numbers. It's heavy words that need some spicing up.

Which brings us to this infographic that I made with a Canva template. Hey, I'm no graphic designer. I still need training wheels. This somewhat adequately breaks down the components of a digital camera sensor. Every component is evidence of the wonders of and our dependence on microlithography (teeny tiny manufacturing processes).

To take it one step further back, photons travel in groups of varying sizes. Our lens collects and focuses them. The microlens on the sensor funnels them into a specific photosite where they are converted into electrons via the photoelectric affect. We'll get into all that another time. For now, behold the sublime glory of a photosite's complexity.

Why is this my first blog post? I don't think engineers and manufacturers get the credit they deserve. We photographers tend to blow past all their hard work and get straight to taking foggy photos of our vacations.

This also serves as a foundation on which to build an understanding of many crucial topics in the art of photography. Understanding a digital sensor will dramatically improve understanding of noise and its varied sources, rolling shutter, dynamic range, ISO, resolution, silent shutter, etc.

On that note, welcome to the blog!