Bayer Patterns
What is a Bayer Pattern and why do I need to get rid of it?
RGB Pattern
Most monitors display an RGB pattern that is simply a value of Red, Green and Blue for each and every pixel on the screen.
Bayer Pattern
It’s 4 pixel box made of 1 Red, 2 Green and 1 Blue pixel (singles) which gets repeated over the whole sensor. This is mathematically very efficient and can reproduce a higher quality image in a much cheaper sensor. A 4K bayer image may resolve to a 3.2K RGB image, but a 3.2K RGB sensor would be expensive and the Raw file would be huge in comparison, keeping so 3 color values for every pixel. So a Bayer Pattern gives us high end photographic images, stored in small sizes, but must be debayered to be displayed.
De-Bayer
To display a bayered image on most monitors, you need to transcode it into an RGB image. This means each pixel will have 1 Red, 1 Blue and 1 Green value for every pixel on the screen. The single colored pixels on a bayer pattern are mixed with the pixels surrounding them to get an extremely good representation of what an RGB pixel might be at any size or position on the image. Lots of computer time spent here.
RED 4K verses Professional Film / Video 4K
RED’s clever lie was that there cameras were 4K in a profession that had a defined 4K which meant something different. The real world considered a 4K image to have a Red, Green and Blue number for every pixel. Red counted it’s Red pixel alone, it’s 2 green pixels alone and it’s Blue pixel alone which gave it 4K pixels, but they weren’t comparable to a real RGB 4K. Because of the bayer pattern it did yield up to 3.2K, but that wasn’t good enough for marketing. Too bad, as that’s incredible and the truth.
