Re: 8 verses 16 bit

[David Chien <chiendh@xxxxxxx>]

> >Human color vision studies easily show that the human eye can easily
> >see more colors than what the 8-bit color range can support.
> >
> Please present some references for such human vision studies.

> Without spoiling anyone's fun, I expect negative results - 8 bits is
> more than adequate to reproduce all of the colours discernible to the
> human eye under a fixed background level of illumination.

  Perhaps a better expansion is that an 8-bit system can't adaquately
capture scenes in real life which have a great variance in color and
brightness?

  Beach & Sun & Shade.  Huge variance in colors, shades, etc. that the
eye can see, but nothing a digial image could adaquately capture within
an 8-bit range and still maintain both color shades and brightness
levels shades throughout.

  Super-bright white sunlight bright isn't the same as a bright
lightbulb white and that's a difference that can't be captured all at
once within great variances in a scene.

  Also, the problem with in-room tests of human vision is that it
doesn't take out the subjectiveness of color detection.  If we could
only wire up and find out how many colors the retina can actually detect
seperate of the brain...

  Yes, lighting levels differ, but the point of imaging is to accurately
record what you saw and want to image.  If there aren't enough bits to
capture the entire range of shades and colors correctly, it isn't enough
- even if the human eye can't tell one shade from another shade in a
controlled room with color patches.

  Of course, while studies have given figures for the human vision
system at the hundreds of thousands to millions range, none have found
the upper limit of human vision systems.  Either way, saying humans can
see less or more than 8-bit color systems is up to debate.
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