Sony's New IMX017CQE Sensor

[Keith Walters]

It's staggering how fast CMOS imaging technology is advancing.

There was a time when CMOS was the "poor relation" compared to CCD.

Compared to CCD, CMOS was cheap, had much lower power consumption, and everything ran off a single (usually 5 Volt) supply, but CCDs always produced the better picture.

Now we have the D-20 and the RED (and others) which, if they're not actually outperforming comparable CCD models, they're certainly giving them a run for their money.

 

Now we have this 6 Megapixel CMOS chip from Sony. It's a 4:3 "1/1.8" (9.1mm diagonal) 2921 x 2184 pixel chip, and although Sony don't specifically say so, the diagrams suggest a Bayer Mask.

 

Sony claim it can shoot 2880 x 2160 active pixels of HD progressive video up to 60 frames per second, with 10-bit output.

 

Its most interesting feature is that each vertical column of 2184 pixels has its own separate analog-to-digital converter, which means that, when outputting 24 frames per second, the sampling time for each pixel is 20 microseconds, massively more than most CMOS designs, which allows it to work with much lower noise.

 

They don't mention price, but the tone of the press release suggests it's going to be a mass-market product. If they can scale it up to four times the size, they will have a worthy replacement for the Genesis!

I think they're looking at products that can simultaneously shoot HD video and take high quality stills. But where is all that data going to go:-)

[Thomas James]

The new theory is to let the consumers and even children subsidize the creation of ultra-high definition video. With millions of consumer and mass production economies of scale kick in which drastically lowers prices which benefit professionals because they can obtain high end cutting edge technology at rock bottom prices.

 

The first implementation of the Sony 6 megapixel 60 frames per second camera will be a Casio digital still camera. The camera will have an internal buffer that will be able to record 6 megapixel video however no memory card will be able to write at fast enough speeds for continous shooting in real time. Therefore the cameras buffer will probably be exhasted after 30 secounds and it will take a few minutes to write the data to a card before another burst is possible. Raid memory card technology exists in which four memory cards are ganged together which allows faster write speeds. One example of this technology is Panasonics P2 card technolgy. The initial purpose of the Casio camera will not be the creation of ultra high definition video but rather the ability to shoot in burst modes of up to 60 frames per second so you will never miss the shot and will be able to select the best still photo.

 

The camera will also be able to shoot standard definition video at 300 frames per second. High speed cameras will be excellent for children because they can keep up with their whip pans as well as good for slow motion.