Originally posted by clackers
Every RAW image file is just a spreadsheet of pixel values.
Yes those pixels represent values but over a volume of pixels, what happens of that pixel represent 1 in 15mp or 1 in 36mp
If that pixel represents 1 in 36mp how it appears and how the noise appears will be much lower than if that pixel represents 1 in 15mp, the 1 in 15 would have a greater influence as to how that noise will appear the final image
It was no different with film how much influence a film grain had to how the final image looked was dependent on the volume of grains it is being compared to. The more units it is being compared to the less influence that single value represents.
We can have a PGI ( Print grain index) below the threshold so no grain can be detectable ( below 25) using a 4x5 camera whereas using 135 that very same film with the very same grain size ( pixel size) that will show a much higher PGI and degrade the image much more than what was happening to the 4x5 print