Charles Poynton

I am an independent contractor specializing in the physics, mathematics, and engineering of digital colour (color!) imaging systems, including digital still cameras, digital video, HDTV, digital cinema (D-cinema) and digital intermediate (DI) systems. I am involved in engineering wide colour gamut (wide color gamut/wide gamut color) systems, including xvYCC. I do technology forecasting, systems modelling, algorithm development, video signal processing architecture, colour characterization and calibration, and image quality assessment. (More...) It was about 20 years ago that I decided that HDTV should have square pixels ...

I'm a PhD student at Simon Fraser University; my supervisor is Brian Funt.

I live in Toronto with my wife Barbara – a massage therapist and psychotherapist – and our two teenage girls.

home office: +1 416 535 7187
e-mail: prepend my first name to the obvious domain.

On June 12 and 13, I presented a 2‑day seminar Stops, Steps, Looks, and LUTs: The Transition to Digital Cinematography in Munich. The seminar was presented to cinematographers, colourists, DI technicians, and related professionals. Watch this space for an announcement of the seminar taking place in Cape Town in late July, and in New York and Los Angeles later this year. Contact me if you want to encourage any of these events.

I've been writing a monthly column, Poynton’s Vector, for SpectraCal.

I continue to be flummoxed by the absence of any viable, modern, realistic standard for the “gamma” – or properly, electro-optical conversion function (EOCF) – of studio reference displays for video and HDTV. With the demise of CRTs, and with the imminent introduction of reference-grade flat panel monitors, I believe that such a standard is now critically important. More information is available.

I've been using Skype lately; I'm finding it useful. My Skype ID is cpoynton. If you're a colleague using Skype, send me your address, or invite me to connect.

I have a twitter feed!

 Personal stuff
& biographical data