difference between image depth and channels
c++, image, image-processing, opencv
Solution
The depth (or better color depth) is the number of bits used to represent a color value. I am not really into OpenCV, but a color depth of 8 usually means 8-bits per channel (so you have 256 color values - or better: shades of grey (see comment) - per channel - from 0 to 255) and 3 channels mean then one pixel value is composed of 3*8=24 bits.
However, this also depends on nomenclature. Usually you will say
"Color depth is 8-bits per channel"
but you also could say
"The color depth of the image is 32-bits"
and then mean 8 bits per RGBA channel or
"The image has a color depth of 24-bits"
and mean 8-bits per R,G and B channels.
Bottom-line: Documentation (or wording) has to be quite specific here ;-)
Problem
I am trying to learn opencv but its very confusing. Can someone know the difference between imagedepth and the no. of channels in an image. Suppose the image depth is 8 and no. of channels R,G,B is 3. Then , what does it signify, I am having difficulty visualizing the 3d structure