In digital imaging systems, increasing the sampling frequency of the data has what effect on image fidelity?

• A. Decreases image fidelity
• B. No effect on image fidelity
• C. Increases image fidelity
• D. Increases image noise

Answer: (C)

Increasing how often you sample a scene lets the digital image capture more of the fine details present in the real object. When you sample more densely, higher spatial frequencies—the parts of the image with rapid changes like sharp edges and fine textures—are represented more accurately. This reduces aliasing and blur that come from undersampling, so the reconstructed image more closely matches the original scene. In other words, fidelity improves as sampling frequency goes up, up to the point where the scene actually contains those extra details and the reconstruction process can use them. It’s not that sampling suddenly creates more noise; while data size and processing need increase, the direct effect on fidelity is an improvement.