Nikon Sensor

Nikon has been granted a new patent entitled “Image Sensor and Electronic Camera”. It was accepted at the end of December but filed back in April 2021. The filing may be related to that strange 4K 17.8-megapixel 1,000FPS CMOS sensor announced back in February 2021, although YM Cinema reports that it’s not explicitly mentioned in the patent. In fact, the patent doesn’t seem to give that much away at all.

While Nikon appears to have patented the design, Nikon doesn’t actually make sensors. They make equipment for making sensors but not the sensors themselves. Most Nikon DSLR and mirrorless cameras over the years have contained sensors designed by Nikon but manufactured by other companies, such as Sony, Toshiba and TowerJazz. I wouldn’t expect that to change now.

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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.

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