Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
I know some of you must have been on the edge of your seats for this little piece of news, but now we know. After much speculation, it’s been confirmed that the Nikon Z9‘s image sensor is manufactured by none other than Sony.
The SonyAlphaRumors website published the news today, saying “the Nikon Z9 sensor is not only manufactured by Sony but also part of Sony’s patent authorization.” Interesting!
This 8K organic CMOS sensor from Panasonic seems to be turning into the Duke Nukem of sensors. Basically, vapourware. Every so often, a box with “8K” written on the side of it seems to be trotted out to some show or other, with a promise that it’ll be getting released soon and then it never seems to actually happen.
The sensor was first announced in February 2018, boasting an 8K 60fps global shutter. In October 2018 they said it was coming in Autumn 2019 – where we just heard about its development. It didn’t get announced as being available. Well, now it’s been spotted again at the 4K/8K Video Technology Exhibition in Japan.
Well, this is pretty cool. Sensor manufacturer Gpixel has developed a new 4/3″ (22.9mm) CMOS sensor that shoots 4K video at a whopping 2,000 frames per second. With a resolution of 4608 x 2176 pixels, the sensor also features a global shutter, meaning that it captures the entire image field at once – goodbye rolling shutter artifacts!
The sensor is Micro Four Thirds-ish in size, but it’s not quite what we’re used to. MFT consumer sensors are around 18×13.5mm. The Gpixel GSPRING 4510 is a little wider and a little shorter at 20.74×9.9mm. But, for super widescreen stuff, like 2.35:1, it would work out pretty perfectly. That being said, it’s not its intended use.
Tours of factories and facilities are always quite popular to see. We’ve seen quite a few over the years, too covering things like lens and camera construction. Occasionally it’s photography and filmmaking accessories and sometimes even making film. Sometimes, though, as is the case here, we get to see the philosophy of the facility itself.
Sony has posted up a peek inside its Osaka Office. It’s a facility dedicated to CMOS sensor development and was designed by the engineers who work there in order to maximise comfort, communication and productivity. Opened in April 2020, the Osaka Office is the home of Sony Semiconductor Solutions, focusing on designing the CMOS sensors and running Sony’s Imaging and Sensing Solutions business.
Sony has announced their Sony’s newest huge CMOS sensor, the Sony IMX661 with a global shutter and whopping 127.68-megapixel resolution. It’s said to be both the world’s highest-resolution and the world’s physically largest global shutter CMOS sensor with a diagonal measurement of 56.73mm – for comparison, your typical “full-frame” sensor is around 43.2mm.
But just as impressive as its size and resolution is its speed, which Sony says is up to 21.8 frames per second. And just a reminder, this is a global shutter sensor. It uses Sony’s Pregius technology, which enables it to capture scenes without the usual “jello effect” typically associated with rolling shutter CMOS sensors.
With as many sensors as Nikon buys from companies like Sony, TowerJazz, Toshiba, etc. it’s easy to forget that Nikon can and does actually design their own imaging sensors, too. That’s exactly what they’ve done, though, announcing a new, slightly odd square format 4224 x 4224 pixel CMOS HDR sensor that they offers “the industry’s highest level of HDR”.
While the idea of a square sensor of this resolution and frame rate sounds like it would be a lot of fun for things like Instagram and other square format social media, though, it seems this sensor might be destined more for industrial use.
Canon has developed a new CMOS camera sensor that offers a high dynamic range of up to 20 stops, with super high low light sensitivity. The LI7050 is a 1/1.8″ CMOS sensor is an impressive little beast, but this is just early days.
The sensor is quite small (measuring only 7.11 x 5.33mm) and captures only a mere two megapixels. It’s also a rolling shutter, not a global shutter. So, there is still a way to go before we might start to see this kind of tech in a full-frame camera, but Canon says it will go on sale to gear manufacturers as early as October.
The Sony RX100 VII is the latest in Sony’s line of popular RX100 compact cameras. DxOMark recently posted their review of the RX100 VII’s sensor in Sony’s latest iteration and found it to be a little lacking compared to previous generations.
Released in July 2019, the RX100 VII is an update to the RX100 VI. It was a welcome update, particularly for vloggers thanks to the addition of the microphone socket. It features the same 24-200mm equivalent lens introduced in the RX100 VI, but it also came with a new stacked BSI CMOS sensor, which DxOMark says doesn’t stand up to the earlier model.
Once lauded as the kings of video, Sony’s been lagging a little of late with their A7 mirrorless series. They’re still clinging onto that 8-Bit video while the rest of the world is going 10-Bit or even 12-Bit raw. But it seems that Sony might finally be going at least 10-Bit after a sensor spec, allegedly for the Sony A7S III was leaked to EOSHD.
It’s an interesting looking sensor if the leak is accurate, that actually looks specifically suited to video rather than stills. So the possible destination of an Sony A7S III makes some sense and it is definitely a full-frame sensor. It’s not super high resolution, being a 15-megapixel Quad Bayer sensor, but for 4K video, what more do you need?
Canon’s sensor lineup has expanded to add five new sensors, including one Super 35mm and one Full Frame 50-megapixel sensor. It appears as though the additions are new to third party sales, although might have existed in previous Canon models.
All five sensors are rolling shutter CMOS sensors, designed primarily for surveillance, rather than photography or video, despite the physical size of a couple of them.
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