CCD Archives

This is how your camera’s sensor sees the world

Mar 27, 2023 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

The humble image sensor. They are so ubiquitous these days that there are literally billions of them out there. Many of us rely on them either to create an income and to document family vacations or the daily goings on in our lives. But how many of us know how they actually work? How do they “see” light? Or colour?

In this video, Asianometry does a very deep dive into image sensors, taking a look at their initial origins and seeing how they’ve developed over time into the sensors we have at our disposal today. Whether they’re in our cameras, our phones or the webcams in our laptops, it’s impossible to escape them.

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Leica discontinues M9’s CCD sensors, you can no longer replace defective ones

Aug 10, 2020 by Dunja Djudjic 3 Comments

A few years ago, some Leica M9 cameras were affected by sensor corrosion. If you haven’t replaced them by now – well, now it’s officially too late. Leica has discontinued the M9’s CCD sensor and you can no longer replace a sensor in your camera. Instead, you can only buy a new one.

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Welcome to the world of extreme camera modding

Oct 12, 2016 by John Aldred 6 Comments

A lot of us modify our gear to make things better suit the tasks we need them to perform. Sometimes we do it just to speed up workflow a little. Rarely, however, are the modifications quite as extreme as the Nikon D5500a from Primaluce Lab. Based on a Nikon D5500 this camera has had the stock CMOS sensor switched out for a CCD. They also added a pretty hardcore cooling system.

The reason for this is astrophotography. It’s a pretty common fact that CCD sensors tend to do much better than CMOS sensors for this type of photography. But, the big problem with CCD sensors for long exposures is the build up of noise over time due to heat. I used to see this in my old Nikon D100 bodies which used CCD sensors. Anything exposures over about 10-15 seconds were packed full of noise.

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