We propose a new color filter array (CFA) with optimal characteristics for the acquisition of color scenes, since the luminance and chrominance information is encoded in the mosaicked image with the best achievable robustness to aliasing and noise. Our 2 ? 3 pattern is based on the paradigm recently introduced by Hirakawa et al. [1], which focuses on the spectral properties of CFAs. Moreover, these superior properties are fully exploited by a simple, linear and efficient demosaicking method.