A demosaic system and method that supports multiple CFA pattern inputs is disclosed. The demosaic system is capable of handling both RGB Bayer input and CMYG input and perform demosaic operations on both inputs to recover full-color images from the raw input images. The system uses a variable number gradient demosiac process. The process uses a 5.times.5 neighborhood of sensor pixel data centered at the pixel under consideration. The process calculates a set of gradients corresponding to different directions within the neighborhood of the sensor pixel data. A threshold value is determined and a subset of gradients is selected from the set of gradients that fall below the threshold value. The system calculates estimation values for the missing color value and the actual measured center pixel color value obtained from the sensor data on directions that are within the subset of gradients below the threshold. The system then determines the sum of the missing color estimation values and the sum of the actual center pixel color estimation values. The system interpolates the missing color value by using the average difference of the summed estimation values for the missing color and the summed estimation values for the actual center measured pixel value from the sensor data.