Better Light, Inc. was an American company that manufactured digital backs for

large format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame ...

film cameras. It was based in San Carlos, California. The Better Light scan back was a device designed to make it possible to capture digital photographs using traditional 4x5

film view cameras, copy stands, and microscopes by replacing the 4x5 film holders that they used. The Better Light utilized a high-resolution line scanner that scanned the image plane in place of where a sheet of 4x5 film traditionally went. This action was similar to how a desktop scanner works. This scan took time, so could only be used for still objects. This approach was in contrast to sensors used in contemporary digital cameras that capture the entire image at once. The primary benefit of the Better Light system was that it did not need to use a

Bayer filter A Bayer filter mosaic is a color filter array (CFA) for arranging RGB color filters on a square grid of photosensors. Its particular arrangement of color filters is used in most single-chip digital image sensors used in digital cameras, cam ...

to record color information so avoided the need to interpolate color data. Current Pixelshift technology achieves the same result in Bayer filters, which is the most common type of sensor used in

dSLR A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor. The reflex design scheme is the primary difference between a ...

s today. The company's president, Mike Colette, worked as an instrumentation engineer before starting the company in 1992. Better Light ceased production in 2012. Mike Colette died on May 11, 2017, in Placerville, California.

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Better Light, Inc.
1992 establishments in California American companies established in 1992 Companies based in San Carlos, California Digital camera backs Manufacturing companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Manufacturing companies established in 1992