Will Pixboom have an OLPF in front of the sensor to reduce aliasing and moire artifacts or will it not need one? From what I’ve seen, the Freefly or Chronos cams don’t have an OLPF, and in certain highly detailed scenes, moire and alaising artifacts can be seen.
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Absolutely, man! I’ve noticed the same thing. And speaking of optical issues - I’ve noticed some pretty serious gate flare and internal reflection problems in the footage. Have you caught that in your tests too?
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Yes! I have a custom OLPF’s for the Chronos cams and it def. helps reduce aliasing and moire. I haven’t noticed the other problems you’re talking about though. Could you link some footage?
Here’s a quick sample of an OLPF on the Chronos. The first clip is with an OLPF and the second clip is without one. You can see how the jagged aliasing from the lines are reduced in the first clip with OLPF. It’s only four seconds long so you may need to loop clip or slow down half or quarter speed via YouTube play speed settings.
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Is this the Chronos 1.4? Its pixel size is 6.6μm, which indeed makes it prone to moiré patterns.
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Yes, this is the Chronos 1.4. You can see that the OLPF helps reduce aliasing quite a bit. I’m going to be testing an even stronger OLPF and comparing it in more complex scenes—like grids and meshes—to evaluate the tradeoff between aliasing/moire reduction and softness/sharpness.
I’m guessing that with the Pixboom’s higher resolution, aliasing and moire shouldn’t be too bad, but it would still be good to have an OLPF as an option for users who want it or are more sensitive to those artifacts.
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Any update on OLPF being used on Pixboom?
We’re testing to see if Spark’s pixel size requires a low-pass filter.
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Thank you! Please test on these kind of shots below as they are more susceptible to aliasing/moire.
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Fine patterns or textures – like tightly woven fabrics, mesh screens, or striped clothing.
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Architecture – buildings with repetitive details like bricks, roof tiles, or window blinds.
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Distant landscapes – power lines, fences, or even tree branches can sometimes cause moiré if the sensor can’t resolve the fine detail properly.
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Great test scenario! I would like to add a point for Pixboom to consider during testing: The design of the OLPF (Optical Low Pass Filter) is very delicate, requiring a subtle balance between reducing moiré and preserving details. Overly aggressive removal of moiré can lead to a loss of detail.
I conducted a comparison on DPR with products using the IMX410 sensor, which has a pixel size of 5.94μm, making it quite representative.
- Nikon Z6 III: Uses a very weak low-pass filter
- Sony A7 III: Uses a relatively strong low-pass filter
- Lumix S1: Does not use a low-pass filter
- LUMIX S1H: Uses a very strong low-pass filter
From the illustrations, it can be seen that while the addition of a low-pass filter reduces some moiré, it results in significant loss of detail.
Reference link:
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Great points! This makes me curious about what the pixel pitch of the Pixboom Spark is. Just wanted to reemphasize that adding an OLPF would put you at an advantage over the Freefly Wave/Ember and Chronos series cams as they currently do not have one (at this time of writing) hence why some false detail and artifacts can be seen in their footage.
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Got it noted in our little notebook! Thanks for the insight!
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Oops, I went through my old clips and realized I didn’t save that bit (probably because it seemed a little off)…
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My take is that, in many cases, it is better to have the option but with a toggle ON/OFF. See, the extra artifacts totally depend on your composition and what exists in the frame, added to it will be whether the camera is in motion or not. But great thread here!
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Hey Pani! I don’t think an OLPF can be toggled on and off easily since it’s a hardware component. It could be done like the Sony RX1R II but that might be too difficult for the team to handle. However, it can be easily removed when you want to get more detail out of the sensor. From my experience, though, aliasing and moiré are issues I’d prefer to have reduced by the OLPF. I can always sharpen the image in post, and that way I’m working with a much cleaner, less artifact-ridden image.
This is a really interesting technology, and I think it’s the best solution for an OLPF, though it does come with high development challenges and costs.
I found some links that might be useful for the Pixboom team to check out. Hopefully, we might see these ideas in future products.
Essentially, it’s a low-pass filter with a liquid crystal layer that allows you to control the OLPF’s activation and deactivation.
Maybe someday, when products incorporate complex mechanical structures at the sensor level (like optical stabilization, ND filters, etc.), this could be a viable option for an OLPF.
Here’s the link to the Sony RX1R II OLPF: https://youtu.be/POYZQiPFuCk?si=seD56jJJDDz46wM0
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Yes, it’s a really cool technology! I used it alot when I had the Sony RX1R II in the past. But this tech will probably be best for a second or third gen product from Pixboom once they study it further. In this first gen product, I’m totally okay with a basic OLPF design.
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