ABSTRACT
A camera is composed of an image sensor with an associated optical element. In consumer cameras, the optical element is an imaging lens system, which images an object onto the image plane where the image sensor is located. Cameras are used for image capture for the input to Fourier optical systems. Image sensors are used at the output plane and on intermediate image planes within the Fourier optical system. Significant data reduction within the system suggests that high-complexity image sensors may not be optimal at the output of the system. In order to understand the limitations of the imaging process, the optical transfer function will be described in Section 4.2. This is followed by an overview of image sensor technology, with a list of exemplar products in the marketplace.
