The video on top is the presentation of the new Grasshoppers USB 3.0 camera. The camera itself is nothing interesting for us. What’s nice to know is that it actually uses a new Sony 1 inch Global Shutter sensor. All specs and details can be seen on the video you see on top or on that pdf file. Sounds like Sony cameras with Global Shutter will come soon too 🙂
Sony also announced the new HXR-NX3/VG1 camcorder (more at Sony UK).
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If this sensor comes in Sony new cameras it will be revolutionary.
there is already a Sony camera with global shutter in a Full Frame CMOS sensor, check this
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/10/30/Sony-announces-PMW-F55-F5-4K-16-bit-raw-global-shutter-camcorders-with-sxs-and-axsm-memory-options
I think super 35 is not FF but more like APS-C. Still big for CMOS global shutter tech.
The 35 stands for 35mm…
Cine Super35mm is around 24x18mm², that is what is called APS-C in Still Photography
Here is a diagram showing how much smaller than 35mm FF “super 35” is :
http://cvp.com/images/uploaded/sensor_table.gif
Thanks Hans, I read the EOSHD article, Sony is indeed amazing.
sync a…a..above 1/250 secs…???!! OMG please
Global Shutter, has been a FF CMOS dream … that people have been waiting for.
It always starts with the smaller sensor. Then scales up. So good news ! hopefully SOON. That A7r shutter well … Just hope it goes from a low to a HIGH point. 🙂
I don’t see Sony CMOS sensor in the PDF….just CCDs
right. so this would be a “no news”.
The grasshopper achieves global shutter by being dedicated to 1920 x 1200 imaging. Each pixels is probably made of multiple pixels batched because they say no pattern noise. The PMW-F55 is probably more significant as a bellwether of global shutter at higher resolutions.
Or you should watch this video again… where he says about pixel size, which is close to 5D mk II but in 1 inch sensor
The hard part of making a global shutter is not the sensitivity or size of the sensor. The thing that makes a global shutter different is the number of pixels that the hardware can move simultaneously. To build a global shutter they need to move the pixels to memory all at once rather than row by row. Because this sensor has fewer pixels, that is an easier task. The size of the pixels makes this sensor a very cool choice for video. But it doesn’t mean the hardware is fast enough to make a global shutter on a 24MP sensor. Of course it will be soon, because silicon chips get faster and faster. But this is not the moment when we start to see 24MP global shutter. This is just a 1980×1200 global shutter.
The PDF in the article doesn’t mention the new camera. Here is the actual one:
http://www.ptgrey.com/products/Point_Grey_imaging_catalog.pdf
It’s the Grasshopper 3 GS3-U3-23S6M-C and the sensor is the Sony IMX174.
Sadly this camera only does 10-bit RAW, this might be a limitation of the camera, though, the actual sensor might be capable of more. Or maybe it’s a real tradeoff that Sony made in designing the new “analog memory”. So let’s wait an see when the actual specs for this new IMX174 pop up on the web.
“Only” 10-bit RAW? We’re mostly stuck with 8-bit video, 10-bit is able to deliver smooth gradients and stills will likely be 12-14-bit (I don’t know that, I guess that it could well feature 10-bit A/D converters if the chip is designed for video).
No fixed pattern noise was the stand-out feature for me, but that and global shutter… I wonder if it would’ve just been easier to progress CCD read-out speed (?)!
The got the lack of pattern noise and the global shutter the same way. And it’s clever. They made pixel groups of some kind and bundled them before reading them out. It’s the same effect as realtime downsampling from a higher res sensor, but they’ve done it in the hardware. I would guess was more of smart idea than a difficult engineering project.
Stephen, Very informative posts Thank you
Wow… awesome !! Exmor rules!!
http://ocularcomponentmv.blogspot.sg/2014/01/imx174-sonys-ground-breaking-global.html
This sensor merely sacrifices 2 stops to get room for the global shutter. The pixel size after the global shutter loss is still quite large. A rolling shutter model would be better than 14stops. Even 1/3″ HD pixels in Sony rolling shutter CMOS sensors are close to 12stops these days.
Other companies that have done global shutter start with inferior CMOS technology (high noise and low dynamic range) so their global shutter models are 9 to 10stops for large pixels, and even less for smaller ones.
Canon can achieve 12stop global shutter video SLRs, but we are happily upgrading the rolling shutter models every year, there is no reason to hurry. From a still photography point of view, a 2 stop loss is very important because it affects low light performance which is a key selling point of SLRs.