Why are the colours strange when I de-Bayer an image?

To de-Bayer an image correctly, the software needs to know which Bayer matrix the camera is using and the colour of the first pixel. This information is automatically generated within Atik software (Capture, ArtemisRGB and Dawn). There is, however, no accepted way to pass this information to 3rd party software, so manual entry of the matrix type and offset are required. The Matrix type is RGB (sometimes called RGGB or RGBG) and the offsets in x and y have to be found by deduction. Each value will either be 0 or 1. Two of the four possibilities will produce a strange magenta image while the other incorrect option will have red and blue swapped. Once found, the correct settings should always work with that software – so make a note! It’s worth noting that colour cameras work best with an IR blocking filter. This will give images with stronger colour and more saturation.