I know in digital imaging, electrical design matters more than how much light is collected. I’m not looking at specific models. It’s just an observation. What electrical design differences cause the base ISO to be 100 on many consumer grade cameras while cinema cameras have a base ISO of 800?
In: Technology
>I know in digital imaging, electrical design matters more than how much light is collected
That’s not really true. The electrical design and the light collection are tightly coupled.
It all comes down to how much light can you get onto your sensor elements. In small consumer cameras you have a small lens and a small sensor, since each sensor covers less area it gets hit by fewer photons when looking at a certain scene. A digital cinema camera has a big lens and a large sensor making it even easier to get light.
The faster you can get light onto the sensor, the faster you can generate a clean image and start creating the next.
If you look at camera sensor sizes you can see this. A consumer point and shoot digital camera may have a sensor that is less than 10mm wide, while a DSLR of the same resolution might have a 20-30mm wide sensor, and a big digital cinema camera like the Red 8k has a 40mm wide sensor.
More area per pixel means better images or quicker images of the same quality in the same lighting conditions.