richard_chalfan

There seems broad agreement that there is a difference in color rendering between the M9 and the M (240). I suspect personal preference plays a large part in an individual's choice between the cameras. That there is a difference raises the question "why"? This difference in color rendering is usually attributed in forum posts to the M9 having a CCD sensor and the M (240) having a CMOS sensor. But it is not at all clear to me that the sensor structure is the sole cause, or even a contributor, to the difference in color rendering. There are a number of potential sources that could explain the difference in renderings that are independent of the sensor structure (CCD or CMOS). For brevity I will mention just two. First, the chips are made by different manufacturers and each manufacturer's chip may have slightly different transmission characteristics for the blue, green and red filters they place over the pixels. Differences in the Bayer array filter characteristics could certainly cause subtle differences in color rendering. Secondly, the color at each pixel site is generated by firmware algorithms that sample the response of the differently colored pixels at and surrounding the site being computed. The M9 and the M (240) may not use the same color generating algorithms in the processing firmware. If they don't, that could certainly cause subtle differences in color rendering. So there are possible differences (and I haven't by any means listed all the possibilities) in how the M9 and the M (240) generate their color without the differences being inherent to the basic structure of the sensor (CCD or CMOS). I would be interested to know if anyone can definitively trace the difference in rendering to one camera using the CCD structure and the other using the CMOS structure. In fact, to my knowledge the details of the possible non-structural sources for the differences in color rendering are proprietary. So the information needed to determine what causes the difference in color rendering between the M9 and M (240) not be publically available!