The DSLR Field Guide

The Imaging Processor

A DSLR’s imaging processor works behind the scenes, turning the data received from the sensor into a viewable digital image. As such, it is responsible for all the computation of the data from the sensor, from the signal received by the ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) to the transfer of a completed image to the memory card.

There is a great deal of hidden work going on here, not only because you have no direct access to it (other than through the menu settings), but because the proprietary algorithms that are at the heart of the processor are kept secret. As with software applications used on desktop computers, algorithms are the mathematical procedures for performing actions, and those for imaging are complex. Not only ...