What is a Bayer filter?
A bayer filter is a colour filter array in a checkerboard pattern that is placed over a single chip ccd or cmos imager to create a colour image. 50% of the pixels are filtered green, 25% red, and 25% blue. Averaged together, a Bayer chip misses up to 67% of the color information in the image. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. Complex calculations from surrounding pixels are made to interpolate the missing colors at each pixel. However the actual detail is more difficult to “guess” and can result in artifacts or softness. Bayer pattern color cameras do not produce equivalent resolution to 3 chip sensors. So a 4k or 2k Bayer chip may have 3k and 1.5k resolution respectively. This puts the resolution similar to or better than 1920×1080 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 recording. Careful testing of these cameras should be undertaken for blue or greenscreen applications.
