Why does my camera have a 10bit bit depth?

Answered

TDY_William

Community team

• August 30, 2023 23:13

I have a camera that says that the ADC bit depth is 10bits; why is that?  I get 8-bit ADC, and how that would work with an 8-bit pixel format, but what is 10bits for?

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• Official comment

  

  TDY_William

  Community team

  • August 30, 2023 23:19

  

  

  The pixel format determines the number of bits associated with a pixel; 8bit pixel format means that there's 8bits per pixel, 16bit pixel format means 16, etc.  ADC bit depth tells you the max valid data associated with each bit.

  Lets give two examples; if your camera has an ADC bit depth of 10bits, and you are using an 8-bit pixel format, that means all 8-bits is providing valid pixel data.  However, lets says you use a 16bit pixel format; in this situation, only 10 of those 16bits is providing valid pixel data, with the 6 least significant bits only providing "padding", so as to maintain the 16-bit format; the padding can be discarded by the user. 

  Further details on pixel formats and ADC bit depth can be found in each camera's online technical reference document; as an example, see the following link. http://softwareservices.flir.com/BFS-U3-51S5P/latest/Model/public/ImageFormatControl.html

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