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Sony may keep best sensors in house and not sell them to other companies

by 19 Comments

A recent interview with Sony managers discovered that Sony might keep most of their sensors in their own cameras. Mr. Kenji Tanaka and Mr. Yojiro Joe Asai from Sony shared some plans of the company, and among other things, they discovered the future of their sensors.

The interview was originally published on Imaging Resource, but it was removed in the meantime. Still, you can find the original on Google Cache. One segment particularly focuses on the sensors:

Kenji Tanaka: As you know well, our key driver is the image sensor, and we already invested a lot of money for the image sensor development. And the sensor is a custom [design, meaning that] only Sony can use these sensors, and our strength is our in-house technology. So I invested in that and we will keep investing in the in-house technology like image sensors.

[Ed. note from Dave Etchells: This was new information for me; as far as I’d been aware, Sony’s camera division would get access to the latest sensor designs as soon as they came through the design and production cycle, while other companies could buy the same sensor a year later. While this might once have been the case, it appears that Sony currently reserves dome level of their sensor technology exclusively for us in their own cameras.]

Another point caught my attention, and it focuses on the market Sony is targeting. They want to concentrate on mirrorless and full-frame market, and they will likely develop their products accordingly:

Kenji Tanaka: I want to show our technology. The technology can change the future. Right now, I think American people still think the DSLR structure with mirror and shutter is best. But the technology can change that kind of way. And I think only Sony can do it. So I want to explain why the future is changing. And the sensor is one aspect, and the lens is another one. Of course, intelligence is another aspect, but there are many technologies we have, so these things I want to tell your users. And of course [by combining] these technologies we create new cameras. So I want to show you the new camera[…] And I think a mirrorless can take a photo that the even professional DSLRs couldn’t capture. So we want to give a new experience not only [for] the amateur [but also] the professional.

So, it seems that Sony is planning to invest more in their own line instead of producing the sensors for other companies. It seems that their best sensors will be reserved for their own cameras. They are quite big and respected in the world of mirrorless, so it seems logical that they want to put focus on developing in this area. But considering they have produced a large number of sensors for Nikon, it may give a hard time to this company. They plan to focus more on mirrorless, too, so I’m curious to see how their story will unfold in the future.

[via Sony Alpha Rumors]

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  • Nikon, have to accompany with canon global sensor .

  • Logic. Why not? You want best sensor? Buy Sony.

  • If they can afford that they should.

  • World is full of greed, they’ll sell.

  • and even Pentax.

  • …and a lot of medium format cameras.

  • Last time Sony did something like this is was during the VCR BETA MAX WARS AND SONY LOST

    • Doug Birling

      For the sake of conversation, how is that the same?

      Beta verses VHS was two competing formats when the market wanted one, similar to the BluRay vs HD DVD. Consumers, studios, and distributors of both discs and players wanted one product, why carry two different formats of… Pretty Woman, when one is all that’s needed for example.

      But in this case, Nikon or any other company is free to make its own sensor, buy from somewhere else, or stop making that particular camera. No market driver demands that multiple manufacturers make the same camera, because if all the cameras were the same, we may as well have just one, then you remove the lens lock-in that we are faced with. The variation though pushes the market forward.

  • David

    …this to me sounds like some uninformed marketing manager speaking. As I understand it, Sony split off the sensor fab division into it’s own entity last year, meaning that the camera division becomes just another customer that orders their own spec’d product – it’s not very Japanese to horde the latest technology and not make it available ( can anyone guess how may cameras have the same 50MP medium format sensor or the 24MP APC sensor ??? ). Case in point, regardless of how many Sony AR variants they could sell or even increase in market share, the Nikon would still sell may millions more units with that same sensor, Sony ( and their investors ) would never leave that kind of money on the table, period.

    • Doug Birling

      Though if their next gen chips are a huge leap, they could hamper the versions sold to other manufacturers (drop the dynamic range a stop, or the resolution by 4mp) or at least use that threat as a bargaining chip.

      • David

        …umm… why is is that Nikon can get better result out of the same sensor in a Sony product ?

  • Was also tried with blu ray and the Xbox 360. The xb1 has blu ray.

  • Then nikon should buy from fuji! Im still waiting for my S7 pro

    • Fuji has there sensors made buy Sony. The only photographic company that still makes there own sensor is Canon.

      • mikelightspeed

        “their”

    • Fuji only custom orders Sony sensors with different colour arrays. Samsung and Toshiba are out of sensor game as well. There are some none-Sony chips out there but only FF sensors being made is from sony and canon

      • Daris Fox

        Canon is looking to open up their fabs for sensor production, hopefully that’s true as the market is desperate for another manufacturer.

  • Doug Birling

    For the sake of conversation, how is that the same?

    Beta verses VHS was two competing formats when the market wanted one, similar to the BluRay vs HD DVD. Consumers, studios, and distributors of both discs and players wanted one product, why carry two different formats of… Pretty Woman, when one is all that’s needed for example.

    But in this case, Nikon or any other company is free to make its own sensor, buy from somewhere else, or stop making that particular camera. No market driver demands that multiple manufacturers make the same camera, because if all the cameras were the same, we may as well have just one, then you remove the lens lock-in that we are faced with. The variation though pushes the market forward.

    My 2 cents.

  • Had to be expected.

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