The Eye Camera – what would be the specs of your eyes?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a camera that exactly matches the specs of your eyes? Nico and Peter of Corridor Crew did, and they embarked on a fun experiment. They measured the resolution, frame rate, light sensitivity, and dynamic range of the human eye and imagined a camera they named, well, the Eye Camera.

Guys used a RED Gemini 5K camera as a benchmark for comparison, as it’s the highest-quality camera they own in the studio. So, here are the specs of the Eye Camera:

Resolution

The human eye, particularly in its central fovea, possesses a remarkably high resolution. The guys determined the field of view first and then compared the central portion of the human eye to the RED camera’s sensor. In the case of the central fovea comparison, the camera’s resolution beats the eye.

However, when considering the entire field of view of the eye, the human eye’s overall resolution is comparable to a very high-resolution camera such as RED. To be precise, our clarity beats RED. They calculated that the resolution of your entire field of view would be 576 MP. But don’t ask me about the math behind it – that’s my weak spot, I couldn’t even figure it out after watching the video twice. :)

Frame rate

As far as the frame rate goes, our eyes have around 75 frames per second (put very simply. While this is impressive, most of today’s phone cameras can capture more than that, and of course – so can the RED camera.

What’s interesting is that our eyes have a sort of “optical stabilization” (saccades and microsaccades). We also have “built-in content-aware fill,” considering that our brain constantly fills in for the blind spot. Pretty cool, huh?

Light sensitivity (the ISO)

The human eye exhibits an extraordinary range of light sensitivity, from bright daylight to near-complete darkness. I remember a recent hike on a cloudy night – I was actually able to see without a torch after my eyes got used to the darkness! The RED camera, while impressive in its low-light capabilities, cannot match the human eye’s ability to adapt to such a wide range of lighting conditions.

Dynamic range

For me personally, this is one of my eyes’ features that I’d love to have in my camera. The human eye’s dynamic range is exceptional with its ability to capture both bright and dark details simultaneously. Even the RED camera may still fall short of the human eye’s dynamic capabilities in certain scenarios. Not to mention my old Nikon that reminds me how wonderful the forest on a sunny day is through my eyes – and how underwhelming it all looks on the memory card. :)

Based on their findings, Nico and Peter imagine the Eye Camera that would have the combined capabilities of the human eye and the RED camera. The best of both worlds. This device would have a resolution better than the RED camera, a frame rate comparable to or surpassing the human eye, an extremely wide dynamic range, and the ability to adapt to various lighting conditions. It would come in different colors too – hazel, blue, green… They even rendered a 3D model of their imaginary camera. I’ll get a dark-brown one, please! How much?

[via No Film School]

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