Dynamic range of a CCD

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lgelman lgelman
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Dynamic range of a CCD

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

Hi everybody,

 

I don't understand why the dynamic range of a CCD is defined as the full-well capacity divided by the camera noise, and not minus the camera noise.

 

Thanks a lot for your help,

 

Laurent.

 

___________________________________________

Laurent Gelman, PhD

Friedrich Miescher Institut

Facility for Advanced Imaging and Microscopy

WRO 1066.2.16

Maulbeerstrasse 66

CH-4058 Basel

Tel.: 061 696 43 38 / Cell phone: 079 618 73 69

www.fmi.ch

 

 

leoncio vergara leoncio vergara
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Re: Dynamic range of a CCD

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
oversimplifying: you cannot distinguish between two intensity levels if their diffrence is not greater than the noise...
 
Leoncio A. Vergara MD

Assistant Professor
Laboratory of Protein Misfolding Diseases (
lab-PMD),
George and Cynthia Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases Research.

Director of the Optical Imaging Lab. (OIL),

Dept. of Neuroscience and Cell Biology

University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)

301 University Blvd

Galveston, Texas 77555-0641

OIL phone: 409-772-3970 

Lab-PMD phone: 409-7470019

fax: 409-7470015

 


From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Gelman, Laurent
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:46 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Dynamic range of a CCD

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

Hi everybody,

 

I don't understand why the dynamic range of a CCD is defined as the full-well capacity divided by the camera noise, and not minus the camera noise.

 

Thanks a lot for your help,

 

Laurent.

 

___________________________________________

Laurent Gelman, PhD

Friedrich Miescher Institut

Facility for Advanced Imaging and Microscopy

WRO 1066.2.16

Maulbeerstrasse 66

CH-4058 Basel

Tel.: 061 696 43 38 / Cell phone: 079 618 73 69

www.fmi.ch

 

 

Paul Maddox Paul Maddox
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Re: Dynamic range of a CCD

In reply to this post by lgelman
Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

The noise is variation in the signal, which prohibits your ability to discriminate between signals varying less than this.  Dividing the FWC by less than this does not add to the ability to detect differences, even though technically the bit depth of the image could be higher.  Equally, dividing by greater than the noise results in “binned” values in the bit range which could, technically, be accurately detected as different values if the bit depth were greater.  Typically, if a camera has a noise of 7 electrons and a FWC of 21,000, then the dynamic range (your ability to discriminate to signals of different intensity) is 3000.  In this case, the manufacturer would set the bit-depth at 12 (4096).

 

The offset is subtracted from the full well capacity, this is set by the manufacturer (typically 50-200 counts in the image).  

 

There are many more detailed descriptions of this in various books (Video Microscopy by Inoue and Spring for instance).

 

Hope this helps

 

Paul S. Maddox, PhD
Assistant Professor
Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer
Dept of Pathology and Cell Biol, U. de Montreal
P.O. Box 6128, Station Centre-Ville
Montréal QC  H3C 3J7
CANADA


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From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Gelman, Laurent
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:46 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Dynamic range of a CCD

 

Hi everybody,

 

I don't understand why the dynamic range of a CCD is defined as the full-well capacity divided by the camera noise, and not minus the camera noise.

 

Thanks a lot for your help,

 

Laurent.

 

___________________________________________

Laurent Gelman, PhD

Friedrich Miescher Institut

Facility for Advanced Imaging and Microscopy

WRO 1066.2.16

Maulbeerstrasse 66

CH-4058 Basel

Tel.: 061 696 43 38 / Cell phone: 079 618 73 69

www.fmi.ch

 

 

James Pawley James Pawley
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Re: Dynamic range of a CCD

In reply to this post by lgelman
Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal Re: Dynamic range of a CCD
Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
Hi everybody,
 
I don't understand why the dynamic range of a CCD is defined as the full-well capacity divided by the camera noise, and not minus the camera noise.
 
Thanks a lot for your help,
 
Laurent.
 
___________________________________________
Laurent Gelman, PhD
Friedrich Miescher Institut
Facility for Advanced Imaging and Microscopy
WRO 1066.2.16
Maulbeerstrasse 66
CH-4058 Basel
Tel.: 061 696 43 38 / Cell phone: 079 618 73 69
www.fmi.ch
 
 

Dear Laurent.

Actually it is a misleading way to define dynamic range.  The idea is that the read noise gives you the error in the intensity of any measurement. So this definition of dynamic range implies that it is a measure of the number of separable intensity levels that might be visible in the data.

The problem is that, once the signal level exceeds the square of the read noise (in electron/pixel) the ability of discriminate different signal levels becomes limited  more by Poisson Noise than by the "dynamic range".

So, in sum, it is just a convention that works pretty well to separate better CCDs from worse.

For microscopists however, the read noise is a more useful measure because we seldom have specimens bright enough to produce a "full-well" signal.

Jim P.
-- 
Jim Pawley (Summer address) c/o Postmaster, Egmont, BC, Canada, V0N-1N0 604-883-2095, [hidden email]
Beat Ludin Beat Ludin
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Re: Dynamic range of a CCD

In reply to this post by lgelman
Search the CONFOCAL archive at
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

The dynamic range is defined as the ratio between the largest
detectable signal and the smallest detectable signal. For a small
signal to be detectable,  it needs to be at least as big as the read
noise (that's just the common definition, we're dealing with
probabilities/uncertainties and not with binary true/false here).
Thus the dynamic range is equal to the ratio between FWC (which
obviously determines the largest detectable signal) and the read noise.

BTW, the dynamic range should not be confused with the maximum SNR or
the number of gray levels, because for these, the photon noise (which
is intrinsic to the signal) must be taken into account also.

Beat

At 16:46 23-07-2008, you wrote:

>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>Hi everybody,
>
>I don't understand why the dynamic range of a CCD is defined as the
>full-well capacity divided by the camera noise, and not minus the camera noise.
>
>Thanks a lot for your help,
>
>Laurent.
>
>___________________________________________
>Laurent Gelman, PhD
>Friedrich Miescher Institut
>Facility for Advanced Imaging and Microscopy
>WRO 1066.2.16
>Maulbeerstrasse 66
>CH-4058 Basel
>Tel.: 061 696 43 38 / Cell phone: 079 618 73 69
><http://www.fmi.ch/>www.fmi.ch
>
>