Better Light Super 6K-Hs Software Runs Under
Better Lights Viewfinder software runs under Mac (Classic and OS X) or Windows XP.When I first contacted Better Light to learn more about their products, I was immediately struck by the candor and accessibility of the companys founder, Mike Collette.
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Instead, Mike said, If youre ever in the Bay Area, youre welcome to come down for a visit.
Ill show you our backs, some work thats been done with them, and youre welcome to bring your view camera and photograph with one.
My travel plans were cramped, but I made certain that a day trip to San Carlos and Better Light were at the top of the list.
These systems use one shot sensors that record an image much like film does.
The largest digital sensors currently available are about 36 x 48mm, slightly smaller than the smallest 120 film format645.
The largest DSLR sensors are the size of a frame of 35mm film24 x 36mm.
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For image capture in larger formats and at higher resolution, the scanning back is an ingenious way to circumvent the limitation that a digital sensor comparable in scale to 45 film isnt currently available, and may never be.
On a Better Light back this frame is 72 x 96mm, 40 smaller than the 96 x 120mm frame of a sheet of 45 film.
Another perspective on the scale difference is that a Better Light back has a 1.25 magnification factor relative to 45.
A 120mm lens would be normal for a Better Light back.) Just as a flatbed scanner can scan a piece of film or a print thats as large as the scan bed by using a sensor (or sensor array) a fraction the size of the bed, a scanning back can effectively emulate a sensor with a size of 72 x 96mm.
Better Lights most popular model is the mid-line Super 6K-HS, which has a native maximum resolution of 6000 x 8000 pixels, equivalent to a sensor with 48 million photosites or 48MP.
Better Light Super 6K-Hs Full RGB Color
An advantage the 6K-HS back has over a theoretical one shot 48MP sensor is that each photosite on the scanning back captures full RGB color information, whereas an individual photosite of a one shot sensor captures red, green, or blue information, but not all three.
True color is interpolated by merging the checkerboard of discrete RGB color information from each photosite.
Its a color system that works at the expense of possible color errors in the smallest resolved detail (color aliasing) and at a loss of acuity (crisp line resolution) due to the anti-aliasing filter that almost all one shot sensors employ.
So, for color imaging, the Better Light Super 6K-HS could be considered equivalent to a 144MP sensor because each photosite records full color information.
Now, for the bad newscapture times, or more correctly, scan times, are measured in minutes, rather than fractions of a second.
And, thats not all.
A scanning back isnt a self-contained, stand-alone device.
The first component is the back itself, slightly larger than a Polaroid holder that inserts like a sheet film holder in the ground glass frame.
The second component is a box about the size of a 5.25 hard drive enclosure that the scanning back connects to via a proprietary cable.
This box contains a 40 or 80 GB hard drive and stores the captured images.
Restorer ultimate 7 serial keyThe hard drive box then connects via a USB2 cable to a computer.
For field work, the scanning back and hard drive box are powered by a battery thats about the size of the batteries in push mowers and motor scooters.
A laptop would be the logical field complement, but in the studio, a Better Light system could be connected to a workstation.