V1.02
Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D300
Page 52
APS-DX
12
). But those DX sensors are not all exactly the same
size, as you can tell from the chart. The D200 and D300, in
particular, have a very slightly different aspect ratio: 1.49:1 for
the D200 versus 1.51:1 for the D300. Nikon generally rounds
both to 1.5:1, which was the aspect ratio of 35mm film.
Sensor Specifications (Pixels)
Camera Active
Pixels Bit
Depth
D70/D70s 3008
x
2000
12
bits
(but compressed)
D100 3008
x
2000
12
bits
D200 3872
x
2592
12
bits
D300 4288
x
2848
14
bits
13
D2h/D2hs 2464
x
1632
12
bits
D2x/D2xs 4228
x
2848
12
bits
14
D3 4256
x
2832
14
bits
Note: Nikon’s pixel dimensions are always for the active imaging
area of the sensor. Moreover, Nikon has sometimes chosen
a slightly different active area than the sensor manufacturer
suggests (3008 x 2000 instead of 3000 x 2000 for the D100,
for example). But the active imaging area may be slightly
less than the number of “effective pixels.” You’ll note, for
example, that Nikon claims the D300 has 12.3 million
effective pixels, but the image only ends up with about 12.2
million
15
. That’s because some of those extra pixels at the
edges are masked off and used for noise management and
other purposes.
Obviously, not all sensors are built to the same specifications,
so what are the key differences, and what do they mean?
First, note that the physical size of the D300’s sensor is larger
than that of the all-in-one consumer digital cameras, such as
12
Canon uses an ever so slightly smaller sensor size called APS-C, as well as a
somewhat larger one called APS-H.
13
Nikon uses 16-bit processing for the full 14-bit image data for JPEG and TIFF
processing on the D3 and D300.
14
Nikon uses 12-bit processing for JPEG data on the D2x, D2xs, and D200.
15
Sony’s literature indicates a total of 4428x2948 pixels (13.05mp), an effective pixel
count of 12.47mp (4320x2888), and an active pixel area of 12.41mp (4312x2880).
Nikon is masking differently than Sony.
