Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
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.
Researchers at the Institut für Mikroelektronik Stuttgart in Germany, have developed an image sensor that makes it virtually impossible to blow your highlights. It uses “self-resetting pixels” which when they get saturated don’t clip. It simply starts counting over, keeping track of the number of times it’s started over.
Published in the Japan Journal of Applied Physics, Canons is working on a new global shutter CMOS sensor with dual in-pixel charge domain memory. The rather technical paper explains the research and development of the new sensor technology.
This new technology would allow camera manufacturers (or, at least Canon) to remove the final major mechanical component from camera bodies. With a global electronic shutter, there is no need for a physical mechanical shutter anymore.
Well, this is interesting, if it turns out to be true. Canon Rumors says they’ve received a report that an upcoming Canon APS-C interchangeable lens camera is going to contain a Sony sensor. Specifically the Sony IMX571, a 26MP APS sized sensor destined for DSLRs – although it could go in a mirrorless, too.
Panasonic announced their new 8K organic sensor with global shutter back in February. Now, 8 months later, they’ve announced the first camera to contain the new sensor. Officially titled the AK-SHB810, this “8K multi-purpose camera” is scheduled to launch sometime in autumn 2019.
Rumours of a new “Mini A9” APS-C Sony camera seem to be popping up more and more as we get closer to Photokina. But a new announcement today may offer some insight into what may be announced in a couple of weeks.
Sony has today announced a new 31MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor with a global shutter. 31MP is slightly larger than 6K, and while 6K isn’t unheard of, it’s possible that the new Sony IMX342LQA isn’t destined for a video camera, but a stills camera.
Well, it seems that Sony isn’t the only one with a global shutter CMOS announcement of late. According to a press release, Panasonic has also just announced a new global shutter CMOS sensor. This one, though, is capable of shooting up to 60 frames per second at 8K (36MP) resolution. Unlike Sony, which utilises a rear illuminated design with parallel DA converter, Panasonic’s uses an organic photoconductive film (OPF) to allow simultaneous readout of all the pixels on each frame.
Rolling shutter has been the bane of DSLR and mirrorless video shooters since the beginning. In fact, for users of just about any camera with a CMOS sensor. This is all down to how CMOS sensors traditionally work, scanning the scene line by line. Each line is captured at a slightly different point in time, so as you pan, it appears that subjects are leaning or wobbling. Hence it’s become affectionately known as the “jello effect”.
That may be all set to change, though, thanks to a new breakthrough from Sony who has developed an entirely new CMOS sensor with a global shutter function. Announced last week at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Fracisco, the new sensor features a pixel-parallel analogue to digital converter. This means that it can read the data from all of the pixels simultaneously.
One of the biggest pieces of D850 speculation floating around the Internet the last few days seems to be about the sensor. Specifically, who makes it. And no, it’s not Sony. Nikon have actually designed their own sensor for the D850, according to a Q&A session with Imaging Resource. Nikon also promise some pretty significant performance improvements.
This isn’t the first time Nikon have developed their own sensor. Although, many of their past cameras have used Sony and a few Toshiba sensors. But it a Nikon designed sensor is a first for the D8x0 line. The D800 and D810 both contain a 36MP Sony made sensor suspected to be the same one as that in the original Sony A7R.
The rolling shutter effect creates weird patterns in the videos shot on most devices with CMOS sensors. Destin Sandlin from Smarter Every Day has created a fantastic video that explains this effect in a series of examples and comparisons.
As Destin points out, even the past three years he would film the effects of the rolling shutter every time he had his smartphone and a high-speed camera at the same time. As a result, he came up with plenty of examples to simulate the rolling shutter effect, and show us why and how it emerges.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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