Creating A UV Camera...MARS!

I want to create a camera for photographing the world in ultraviolet light. The technology of this camera would be extremely specific as to what I am trying to achieve (exploring the invisible world of the UV spectrum, that is). This would not be your average camera. It would incorporate some really serious advancements in technology. I want the camera to be able to see various sub spectrums in the UV spectrum itself. And the range of UV light that it could see would be incredibly far ranging, much more than that of cameras that are modified for UV these days. For instance, the camera could see wavelengths far beyond (under) 300nm, and we could assign color coding to the specific wavelengths that comprise the UV spectrum, such as...

 The camera would help us explore the entire spectrum of Ultraviolet light. Or if not, then individual spectrum that could be incredibly narrow, by using RGB. (Unfortunately enough, those are the only color sensors visible in human eyesight). We could select either extremely fine, or extremely wide ranges of UV spectrum. The camera could see a specific range of UV light. If we would want to see the other spectrums of UV light, then we could develop another camera, simply so that we could observe the UV spectrum in various ranges at a time, and also, that would help to create a much sharper image, albeit reducing light sensitivity of the camera sensor. So, in order to mitigate this issue, most especially problematic during lowlight, here's what could be done...

Designing The Camera Sensor

There are several new advancements in sensor design that have been developed very recently in order to achieve higher quality images in modern cameras in regular daylight. And some of those advancements are meant to produce higher quality in lowlight, given the fact that camera manufacturers keep wanting to create cameras with high resolution, leading to smaller pixels, which in turn simply cannot gather as much light as larger pixels, which is mainly a problem in cameras who's sensors have relatively low spatial resolution. So, here are the things that we could incorporate into developing a specialized camera for Ultraviolet imagery. First, we would make sure that the sensor has exceptionally high spatial resolution, which (unfortunately) would require lower resolution. Now, you might be asking yourself, "How about the resolution?" Ah! So we could incorporate a function into the camera, one that is rarely, if ever, found in modern cameras. That would be super resolution. This would work by taking at least four images, and overlaying each one on top of each other using a dedicated algorithm that would be either implemented in-camera, or in a photo enhancement program. Now, another thing that could be done is to use pixel sampling; this has already been talked about in my earlier post. Astoundingly enough, we can combine this with yet another technique. And in other words, this would be recreating the sensor that is found in the rather expensive camera sensors incorporated into cameras by Sigma, which use layers. Each layer is actually a sensor itself, and each one records a single color. The resolution is far higher than each sensor itself, and the resulting colors are supposedly more accurate than color from other cameras. To increase light sensitivity, we would incorporate a lowlight, or BSI sensor. And to top everything off, we would include the addition of quantum dot film, which would increase lowlight performance, as well as increase dynamic range even further. 

Lenses

Lenses are yet another important aspect of the camera that needs to be considered. First of all, as I have already mentioned, UV photography requires an extremely abundant amount of light. Yet what I forgot to mention, is the fact that modern camera sensors are not really that great at seeing UV light. They are great at seeing Infrared, yet for some reason UV does not lend itself well to modern camera sensors. So that might require a large sensor, such as one found in modern DSLR cameras, even if we reduce the resolution to allow for higher lowlight performance. And a large sensor might need a boost in depth of field. And to do that, one of the lenses that we could develop would be a very wide angle prime lens, and the aperture that would produce the brightest images would be as small as possible, and it would also need to be really high quality glass. Why a small aperture? you might ask. Because small apertures produce images with more depth of field, and depth of field is critical, especially on cameras that have A-PSC sensors and larger. Sure, with enough expertise, you can definitely mitigate this problem by taking advantage of the hyperfocal distance; However, this does not truly eliminate the problem whatsoever. So the quality of the glass in the lens would need to be really high, such as (for instance) the lenses of Zeiss or Leica, in order to achieve the highest possible image quality while being able to stop the lens down as far as possible.

The other lens that would be developed would be a prime lens with a large aperture. This lens would produce lower depth of field. However, this lens would be meant for lowlight photography. So to achieve greater lowlight performance, the lens would need to be as wide as possible, and have a wide aperture. Also, the focal length would be telephoto, or at least moderate (50mm) so that that the lens would be brighter. I don't know if that makes much sense; however, that is what I have found about lenses, that the higher the focal length, the better they perform in lowlight.
The Challenge Of Using The Camera On Earth
So the Earth's atmosphere traps an IMMENSE amount of UV light. And this does not necessarily mean that we are stuck in the dark (no pun intended).  Instead, this gives us some extremely astonishing and incredible prospects on a planet such as Mars...Side note= (have you wondered why it is that NASA sent the HST into space?!) Lastly, I would just like to mention that I have written this, because it just seems astounding to me. I want to become an engineer some day...