The Japanese blog Egami (Click here) found a new Sony patent about a new sensor with high dynamic range. It’s actually a “Photochromic Image Sensor“. The google translation tool as usual makes a terrible job and it’s not easy to understand how the new technology works. For what I understood the new sensor has a much increased dynamic range in both shadow and highlight!
Just a reminder. Sony is patenting many “cool” sensor technologies. Like foveon sensors or these photochromic sensors. Can’t wait to see them in use in a real camera. By the way Sony, why not make a modular camera where we can sue a ll these different sensors?
More info about Photochromism on Wikipedia (Click here).
26 Responses
“By the way Sony, why not make a modular camera where we can sue a ll these different sensors?”
Ah we can dream, but I think for the same reason you can’t use the external EVF on older NEX models — they want you to buy an entirely new product, not upgrade your existing one.
Ricoh did it. It doesn’t mean that Sony would lose money – it just means people would upgrade every year instead of saying, “well, there’s not much difference so I’ll wait a couple of years.” Sony seemst o be on the ‘think different’ path so modular wouldn’t be a surprise.
as in let’s create more chemical waste ?
Ricoh did it and they end up with most expensive and pointless ILC system on the market.
I hardly would like to see Sony doing the same.
An interchangeable system would be expensive and probably more unreliable.
No matter how good they made a sensor, it would still be deemed useless unless it was good at high ISO!
There been an interchangeable sensor system around for a long time. You could use an ISO 50 color sensor for landscapes, or a B&W ISO 3200 sensor for street photography at night. Changing sensors took less than a minuet. The system was called FILM. 🙂 🙂
why not more focusing at ISO control 🙁
hahaha, why not more focusing on their actual products…SLT…4 years to come up with a a77 that cannot reach the nikon D7000 perfs..what a pity..
Nice technology on the paper..who knows soon they ‘ll come up with a 10000000000000000000000000000 mp camera that can control noise up to 200…
I applaud any company actively engaging in R&D across various fields. As consumers we can only whine for more of the same like cleaner and cleaner ISO performance. On the other hand this kind of research seeks to achieve advances in pioneering leaps rather than incremental improvements measured in hundreds of ISO. Research and patent filings may reveal a taste of things to come but you know they have little bearing on current products. Don’t misrepresent their existence as if they were indicative of current product strategies. “Why not focus on [blah] [blah] ” You are basically telling the company to focus on the known rather than the unknown, undiscovered, untested boundaries. I say go for it, Sony!
Change the record. Please. For pity’s sake…..
Funny for people don’t know how to use review properly. You read review for looking things that suit your needs not everything that everybody want. World has gone beyond I want everything to I use what I want.
why not focusing on producing decent lenses…if we compare with what minolta had done in the past..sony is ages behind
What kind of strange glass are you looking through?
Sony has produced the best high-iso sensor for apsc cameras on the market (the 16-mpx sensor) and some of the best lenses on the market. Next year Sony will forge ahead with high-iso FF sensors AND with high-mpx sensors, and will give us numerous great lenses.
And Sony has nothing to be ashamed about with the A77, the best apsc camera ever made.
Sony just needs to be careful with upcoming FF cameras. They definitively need better high ISOs handling, if they want to gather reputation.If they improve further EVF, with top notch low-noise images and all bells and whistles.. Then really other companies will have few reasons to not sleep quietly.. In the meanwhile A77 is a very good camera but for me not worth upgrading (and I am sticking with an A200!!!).
if the A200 suits your needs then thats fine. However, if you’re assuming that the A77 wont perform better than your A200, you really need to go and play with one……they are universes apart.
I know that it performs better. I am not that naive. I just say that I want to see a bigger difference in noise handling at high iso in order to upgrade. 🙂
dont get swept away by high ISO B.S, I moved from an A100 to A700 and I was amazed at the difference, the fact it was better at noise was a “oh yeah, there’s less noise too” sort of experience. The A77 will be better than your A200 on every level and since you are happy with an A200 you cant have that much requirement on high ISO anyway.
Canon 5d Mark X Will only have 18mpx but 200.000 ISO reach!
I think their view of trying to climb the Mpx race was very smart, and start trying to really improove image quality with the actual mpx that we have now… are more than enough!
“Canon 5d Mark X Will only have 18mpx but 200.000 ISO reach!”
…and not usable beyond 25600
Just marketing spin much like Nikon “1”..60FPS for 0.5 sec WITH FOCUS LOCKED!
🙂
Interchangeable backs are nothing new. There are no inherent reliability problems, otherwise medium format cams wouldn’t still be using them. The manufacturer that creates this for full frame cameras will have a real hit.
This would solve any issues involved with folks wanting SLR instead of SLT. And with so many togs using vintage lenses on NEX system, and with the sure to come 3rd party offerings, a complete lens line may not be the most prudent manner to expand profits on a single camera line.
A series of interchangeable sensors could be optimized for ultra-wide lenses, infra red, noise control, HDR, stills, video… And they would release a new improved one with higher MP every year. I don’t have to buy Sony lenses to be satisfied with NEX shooting. But a series of interchangeable sensors or backs would tempt my new purchase for the entire set.
Hi Andrea!
We have that modular system already… simply change the body! 😉
+1
Interesting patent idea, but I guess it is for very far off products.
You can read more (in real english 🙂 on the used material here : http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2009/04/24-01.html
Bravo, Sony! To me, Sony is the most innovating company in digital imaging and deserves a big acknowledgement. While the Big Two are selling again and again the same concept, Sony is refreshing users with new possibilities and features. Bravo, Sony!
Interchangeable sensor is already there with medium format like some people mentioned.
I don’t think it will come to 35mm or ILC anytime soon. (Except for the Ricoh system, which went the weird way by putting the lens and sensor in a package)
It simply does not make much sense at this point. The sensor is nothing by itself and desperately needs intimate relationship with the image processor chip (e.g. Bionz, Digic). And the board that the image processor is on, is the backbone of the camera. In these smaller cams, there is not much playground, design-wise, to place things around and so pretty much every new camera has similar but fine tuned design for what is in it.
Given the fact that a lot of the peripherals are also under constant development and improvement, a fixed body with interchangeable sensor is just not reasonable to expect.
Even for the 1-year old NEX-5, Sony couldn’t make the new EVF work. Probably the peripheral interface had to be changed. You simply cannot guarantee future compatibility when things are changing so fast. Think of SLT. It couldn’t have been pulled off with an existing camera.
SO what about the new sensor? Can someone who knows Japanese translates that for us?