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Binning is a process used to increase the sensitivity of a CCD camera by combining the light-sensitive wells (i.e.pixels) together to boost the signal. If we imagine a hypothetical camera (see below) with a chip consisting of 4 x 4 pixels and we apply a binning factor of two then 2 x 2 arrays of adjacent pixels will be combined together to form an array of 'super pixels' that are four times the area of the originals and contain the combined signals of the adjacent pixels. This improves the sensitivity because CCD camera readout noise often obscures low signals. By combining the signal from adjacent pixels the readout noise threshold can be exceeded.
The drawback is that the resolution is lower because the specimen is now being sampled (in the example above) by four large pixels instead of 16 small ones.
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