The inner segment is very much like that of a rod. Rods, of course, are very sensitive, see only shades of black and white, and are easily bleached out in strong light so that they add little to daylight vision. Cones are much less sensitive to light, but they come in three types with different pigments that absorb different parts of the wavelengths of light and, therefore, their activities when compared can give us the sensation of color. Also in the dark, the photoreceptor continues to release neurotransmitter onto receptors in bipolar cells and horizontal cells. When light hits the photoreceptor, ion gates close, reducing the current between the inner and outer segments.
Neurotransmitter release is reduced.
There is a rhodopsin molecule about every 5 nm in the membranes. The trans-retinal must then be metabolically reduced to make it cis once more when it can reattach to an opsin molecule. Evidence is accumulating that it is the pigment cells that reduce the retinal. Color vision , as we see it, is not truly color vision. We have three types of cones that contain different pigments and, therefore, have spectral optima that are different.