18
The Digital Back
The 16 million pixel digital back can produce 16 bit
raw files at 33 Mbytes each at a rate of 35 frames per
minute.
FlexColor then processes these files to produce the
quality expected from Hasselblad.
5
501
503
CWD
General overview
In very simple terms, the 503CWD digital back holds a light sensitive sensor in place
at the film plane. The electronic signals from the sensor are then processed and
stored as a digital file.
As an electronic colour image is made up of three components − red, green and blue
which combine to form a so-called RGB image − the sensor’s task is to convert a
multi spectrum light image into three digital files (red, green and blue) for combina-
tion later on.
The 503CWD uses a CCD (Charged Couple Device) type sensor that has 16 million
light sensitive areas on its surface each of which creates a pixel.
Each pixel in the sensor is filtered to create the three separate red, green and blue
files. Software then processes these electronic files as a package to produce the vari-
ous formats − RAW, TIFF, JPEG etc.
The three components of the image file are later recombined on the computer screen
to produce the familiar full colour image.
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The image file can be temporarily stored either in the 503CWD digital back with a
CF card, on a Hasselblad Imagebank or the hard disk on a computer. Processing of
these images is carried out in conjunction with the included FlexColor software. See
the separate FlexColor manual for further details
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