{"id":9330,"date":"2018-02-12T08:49:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T08:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alinpopescu.eu\/blog\/?p=9330"},"modified":"2018-02-12T08:49:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T08:49:54","slug":"pixel-shift-sony-a7r-iii-worth-extra-work-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alinpopescu.eu\/blog\/pixel-shift-sony-a7r-iii-worth-extra-work-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Pixel Shift on Sony A7R III – Is it worth the extra work and time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pixel Shift on Sony A7R III – Is it worth the extra work and time?<\/h1>\n

First thing first when I got the Sony A7R III<\/a> in for tests was to check how Pixel Shift<\/strong> technology \u00a0really works and what results do we get out of it.<\/p>\n

What is Pixel Shift first of all?<\/h2>\n

The concept behind this is that better resolution and dynamic range can be obtained by taking the same shot in 4 different exposures, each separated by a 1 pixel wide moving of the camera’s sensor, using it’s IBIS system (In Body Image Stabilisation).<\/p>\n

A normal shot looks like this (images taken from Sony’s presentation movie)<\/p>\n

\"Sony<\/p>\n

The camera should not move at all (good tripod required) and also subject shouldn’t move at all. I’ll talk about this later. 4 shots are taken with minimum 1 second interval (so any vibration of the camera would stop).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This way, the entire image is covered with all independent RGB photodiodes of the sensor. So we have the complete scene shot with all red sensitive diodes, blue ones and twice the green ones (as in normal Bayern pattern green is double in numbers).<\/p>\n

In a dedicated software all 4 shots are combined into a single ARQ image (RAW equivalent of this Pixel Shift method). As of the writing of this article only Sony’s own imaging software suite called Imaging Edge<\/a> is capable of doing this, and also a more difficult to use RAWTherapee<\/a> ver. 5.3 (for the geeks).<\/p>\n

\"Sony<\/p>\n

So, in theory we get 4 times more information, an approx 169.6 Million Pixel data. Still a 42 Mpx image, but with more information for better sharpness, less moire and more dynamic range.<\/p>\n

So let’s see Pixel Shift in action<\/h1>\n

As I already said, you need a good tripod so no movement happens between these 4 frames needed for Pixel Shift. It’s actually so crucial not to get any movement because the shift is only one pixel so every little movement will off-set your shooting by a larger margin. Sony says this technique is also dedicated to landscape photographers but after using this outside, I might disagree. For sure there’s going to be a branch moving in the frame, or a bird passing, or clouds moving. Else, you need a perfectly frozen nature, which is hard to find in many cases.<\/p>\n

Out of curiosity, I’ve taken the same shot (or at least similar framing) with both A9 and A7R III, the last in normal shooting and with Pixel Shift.<\/p>\n

\"Sony<\/p>\n

Both cameras on 35mm: the Sony Zeiss Distagon 35mm f\/1.4<\/strong> and the Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar 16-35mm f\/4<\/strong> because I’m holding to my project of 2018 and that means to shoot only OneLens<\/a>. (or at lease one focal when it comes to multiple cameras in tests).<\/p>\n

So no further talk, these are the results<\/h2>\n

First, this is the general shot for the dynamic range observation. The different framing is due to Capture’s One algorithm to reduce distortions in lenses it knows, so it applies the profile for the lens in use, resulting smaller sizes for the final image (both tall and wide).<\/p>\n

Left is normal, right is Pixel Shift<\/h5>\n

[twentytwenty]<\/p>\n

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[\/twentytwenty]<\/p>\n

Then, let’s look at two different 100% crops from the previous images. I didn’t choose extremes, because we’re not looking here for the lens performance frame-wise, but I wanted to check how normal shot and Pixel Shift one compares one-to-another.<\/p>\n

Here is crop 1<\/p>\n

Left is normal, right is Pixel Shift<\/h5>\n

[twentytwenty]<\/p>\n

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[\/twentytwenty]<\/p>\n

Here is crop 1<\/p>\n

Left is normal, right is Pixel Shift<\/h5>\n

[twentytwenty]<\/p>\n

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[\/twentytwenty]<\/p>\n

What amazes me is this: while going through the images I’ve created for this article, I wasn’t so impressed about Pixel Shift. I’ve zoomed on the big file, watched for details, and my mind was convinced it’s just a minor advantage to Pixel Shift images. But watching the above crops, one near to the other I’m just blown away by the sheer amount of details this method gives us. Not to mention the increased DR, colours and contrast.<\/p>\n

Here are all 3 shots (Sony A7R III Normal, Sony A7R III Pixel Shift and Sony A9)<\/p>\n\n\t\t