Description
Punakaiki Sea and rock captured with a Scanning back and 5×4 camera
A digital scan back or scanning back is a type of digital camera back. Digital imaging devices typically use a matrix of light-sensitive photosensors, such as CCD or CMOS technologies. These sensors can be arranged in different ways, like a Bayer filter, where each row captures RGB components, or using one full-sized layer for each colour, such as the Foveon X3 sensor.
A digital scan back takes a similar approach to the second type of photosensor, but instead of using one matrix for each component, it uses one array per component. This translates to a 3×N sensor matrix, where N is typically a large number (between 5,000 for earlier models and 15,000 for newer models), which is then placed vertically in a holder. To take an image, the sensor travels the x-axis, taking one exposure per point.
