Monochrome converted 5DII

[amolitor]

The point about the Bayer array is that you're literally trading resolution for chroma information. Using a sensor with no such array doesn't give you the chroma info, but you do get the resolution back. I don't have the math on hand for the bayer array situation, mainly because I haven't gone and looked for it, and I don't know or much care about the algorithms used.

I assume it is similar to the situation where you can trade resolution for bit depth. Audio systems routinely use 1-bit digital-to-analog converters, which are essentially an embodiment of this idea. They operate at insane frequencies, so you have enormous resolution (in audio terms - in electronics terms the frequencies involved are trivial) but almost no bit depth. By filtering the output, you lose resolution -- bringing the frequencies back into the range of audio -- and gain bit depth.

Anyways, you should be able to see the example with narrowband red light pretty easily, without doing any reading or even much thinking.

 

[ceejtank]

Narrowband red yes, but a blue light like mentioned in his article is a different story.

 

[amolitor]

Blue light works the same way, huh?

The point is that 3/4 of the pixels will read 0, and the other 1/4 will give some useful information. You still have 10 megapixels, but 7,500,000 of them are not doing anything useful in the way of telling you about what's in front of the lens.