At Nikkei.jp (Click here) Sony gave some hints about the new OLED viewfinder used for the new Sony A77/65 and NEX-7: “The OLED panel employed for the EVF has a screen size of 0.5 inches and a pixel count of about 2.4 million (1,024 x RGB x 768). The size of its sub-pixel is 3.3 x 9.9μm. Compared with the LCD panel used for the EVF of the “α55,” Sony’s former product, the contrast ratio of the OLED panel is about 10 times higher, the company said. Sony realized the color display by combining white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) and red, green and blue color filters. With a small molecular WOLED material, the company formed OLED elements by using an evaporation method. As a result, compared with the method in which red, green and blue OLED elements are formed, the resolution of the panel was enhanced. Sony formed driver elements, D-A converter, timing controller, etc on a silicon (Si) substrate. The panel is produced in volume at the Higashiura Office (Aichi Prefecture, Japan) of Sony Mobile Display Corp, which is Sony’s subsidiary.”
One of my sources told me weeks ago that the EVF is made by Samsung. Now, the press release says the exact opposite but fast is that the sources always gave me correct info. A second trusted source told me that there is a “secret” Sony-Samsung agreement to develop together some of the “mirrorless” technologies to be able to cut the costs which will allow them to fight against the Canon-Nikon dominance. According to the source nor Sony neither Samsung can unveil the content of the agreement and everybody can claim that the technology is made in house. As usual take the rumors with a grain of salt. All I can say here is that those are good sources.
25 Responses
hahaha 1st!
Your mother must be so proud.
😀
lol
That one source also mentioned that the size would be 0.9″. Apparently it is 0.5″.
Will the 0.9″ type be the EVF for the FF SLT’s? BR.
“The panel is produced in volume at the Higashiura Office (Aichi Prefecture, Japan) of Sony Mobile Display Corp, which is Sony’s subsidiary.”
They wouldn’t say this when the OLED panel is produced at Samsung. I think your source was wrong in that point.
But let’s wait for the next Samsung cam with EVF. If the spec is the same like the Sony solution your source might be right.
I guess the most important part here is the spesification of the VF rather than which company og companies that developed and or produce them…
Well, it could be Samsung’s technologies, but licensed & manufactured by Sony…
It is no hidden fact that Samsung is at the frontier of OLED technologies. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case.
“But let’s wait for the next Samsung cam with EVF. If the spec is the same like the Sony solution your source might be right.” – yep. That would be a final proof of this hidden cooperation agreement. Otherwise it’d be just technology exchange which isn’t anything weird or uncommon – Japanese companies do this all the time, even Canon and Nikon do that frequently.
Tomorrow news, Nikon + Sony secret mission develop nikon mirrorless? Lol
Sony and Samsung share the same technology and production facilities for at least some of their tv’s, they have been developing lcd,led technologies together for the past 8 years,
so samsung producing the OLED evf wont suprise me
The simple answer is wait 3 months. If within 3 months (NX20) Samsung releases the same EVF, then it’s a joint venture. If not, it’s Sony’s made exclusive EVF.
Always nice for some insight into how these things work. Very interesting.
We sit and moan, asking why they haven’t included tethering on the a77, but really the whole process of design, production, testing etc must be incredibly complicated. It’s always nice for a little insight.
Sounds to me like the rumours that Sony sensors are used in some Nikon dSLRs. Yes we know that are, but there was nothing official.
The calculation “1024xRGBx768=2.4 million pixels” is misleading. A pixel consists of 3 sub-pixels for red, green, and blue.
Thus, the pixel count is 786.000 and not 2.4 million. But of course, the latter sounds much better.
Panasonic with their GH2 does the same. 950*540*RGB= 1.54 million, not 513.000
Sony has a lot of common interests in making displays – proof is in S-LCD company:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-LCD
Interesting related Bloomberg article entitled ‘Canon Clinging to Mirrors Benefits Sony Cameras’ here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-07/canon-clinging-to-mirrors-means-opportunity-for-sony-cameras.html
Interesting to read it from a purely business point of view. Over the next few years mobiles are going to wipe out compact sales and Canon still rely on compacts for a third of its business.
Coupled with less low and mid-range dSLR sales due to mirror-less, they’ll be feeling the squeeze on their profits.
At least Nikon is developing something, not heard anything from Canon. However I believe that the future of photography is not Canon and Nikon, it is with the electronics giants, Sony, Panasonic and Samsung for example.
Canon, and to a lesser extent at the moment, Nikon, are in real danger of becoming high end brands over the next decade or so, like Leica is now.
I am sorry Andrea but you have gone over the line. If Sony says they make it in a factory in Japan and you speculate that they are concealing some secret because of what your most reliable source told you then you are basically saying Sony is lying in a press statement. Your reliable source can be forgiven for being misinformed on one point but ….
For those who have missed this Sony launched OLED professional displays on to the market in April and I heard these are Sony technology too. Why is it so hard to believe that Sony can make this?
Samsung screwed Sony over with their LCD venture in S-LCD corp.
Now many people think that ‘Sony is using Samsung panels’, etc.
Hopefully Sony doesn’t screw this partnership in Samsung’s favor again.
I for one couldn’t care less who makes the LCD or the EVF. As long as it’s good!
Yeah it’s not as though it bothers Nikon users that their camera has a Sony sensor in it….oh wait…. 😀
2 years ago they refused this thought entirely, so at least we’ve made some progress. Now they say: Yes, maybe Nikon cameras have sony sensor, but Sensor doesn’t matter, it’s the processing that does. (while years ago it was sensor that did matter, but well…. people forget what they said VERY quickly)
i thought the ownership of OLED has always been from KODAK? (i did a minor thesis bout it during college) then sold to SONY at one point, then sony setup factory in korea for before selling it to samsung? i might be really wrong thou ;P i mean, SONY has been using OLED display 5 years before samsung started AMOLED… sony uses the OLED display on their car stereo players!