Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

A normal digital camera captures footage with 8 bits of color depth per channel. That is, it can capture 256 tones from darkest to lightest of any given color. However, in a lot of lighting situations that's only a fraction of what the human eye can capture, so often a digital camera produces poor images in comparison to what we'd like.

The exposure setting on the camera dictates what range of brightness the CCD is attuned to (and those 256 levels are spread over) by dictating how long it's exposed to the item. Assuming the item you're capturing is immobile, multiple photographs at different exposures can be combined into a single photograph with a virtual bit depth far greater than what the camera should be capable of.

“Standard” Mode

Standard/My Way Split

“My Way”

Anyway… If this was built into a digital camera's BIOS it would instantly improve most digital photos to the level I've demonstrated above or likely better without adding one cent to the cost. However, because it requires no new hardware (and thus no sales) to improve quality, it'll probably never happen…