New Kodak Sensor

[Vicente]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Kodak Announces Highest Resolution Interline Transfer CCD Image Sensor

 

Could this be used as a new sensor for a future M?

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[mjh]

Could this be used as a new sensor for a future M?

Not likely. It is an interline transfer CCD for industrial applications; like its predecessors it will probably require active cooling.

[adan]

Some of the technology being used (e.g. unfiltered white-light pixels among the colored Bayer pixels for better light response = higher ISOs) may eventually filter down or transfer (sorry, hard to avoid a pun in this context ) to full-frame (technology, not size) still-photography Kodak sensors.

 

Interline-transfer CCDs basically have a row of transfer pixels alongside each row of imaging pixels - the electrons created by exposure shift into the "blind" transfer pixels for readout, leaving the imaging pixels "empty" to start collecting a new image. Good for high frame rates - video, or single-frame rates with 29 Mpixels of data.

 

The downside is that half the sensor surface is not responding directly to light, so the ISO sensitivity drops. Plus fine details get "dropped out" if they fall on the transfer rows instead of the imaging rows.

 

(think of an auditorium with every other row of seats taken out to provide cross-aisles - easy access, but half as many seats)

 

Full-frame CCDs as in the M9 and S2 and other still cameras keep all the seating, but require a pause (with the shutter closed) for the "audience" (pixel charges) to flow out of the rows of seats to the aisles and then out of the theater. More or bigger seats - simpler architecture - but slower readout that requires a physical shutter.

Edited November 7, 2010 by adan

[farnz]

... (think of an auditorium with every other row of seats taken out to provide cross-aisles - easy access, but half as many seats)

 

Full-frame CCDs as in the M9 and S2 and other still cameras keep all the seating, but require a pause (with the shutter closed) for the "audience" (pixel charges) to flow out of the rows of seats to the aisles and then out of the theater. More or bigger seats - simpler architecture - but slower readout that requires a physical shutter.

An excellent analogy, Andy.

 

Pete.

[DFV]

Not likely. It is an interline transfer CCD for industrial applications; like its predecessors it will probably require active cooling.

 

Ufff! Thank god! For a minute I thought I would have to go break my piggy bank, again.

 

In any case, 18 MP seems to be enough for me. It is more than sufficient for me. Ii is unlikely that I will ever require prints larger than A3. Going 29mp or beyond mean a larger SD card, a more powerful computer and more storage... A lot of money for an increase in resolution that most of us do not need.

 

Instead I wish the next CCD on the Leica "M" to improve consumption, have less noise above 640 ISO and be a bit more forgiving with wide angles (especially older Leica and third party glass). Right now I believe that these are more pressing that a war on the amount of pixels.

[elansprint72]

Not likely. It is an interline transfer CCD for industrial applications; like its predecessors it will probably require active cooling.

 

Do Leica owner's tears not count as "active cooling"?

[janki]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Thanks Andy and Michael for very clarifying posts!

 

Immediately, when I read the news of this new image sensor from Kodak, I thought it could be the basis for a new "extreme" FF digital system camera from Leica.

But I've obviously misunderstood.

 

I think it is a bit strange that this news is presented as photographic news, when it's more about a sensor for industrial use.

 

No it is obviously, that as an impression in general of this year's Photokina, there will not be any significant news from the camera industry during these next two years.

[mjh]

I think it is a bit strange that this news is presented as photographic news, when it's more about a sensor for industrial use.

One cannot blame Kodak’s sensor division for issuing a press release when a new sensor is ready … Actually at least one vendor had announced a camera using this this sensor even two weeks before Kodak’s official press release. It is mainly an issue with the online media: they grab some news and run with it, rather than doing some research of their own (this isn’t rocket science) and framing the news in its proper context.

[pierovitch]

The new KAI-29050 is also available in a regular Bayer and monochrome versions.

and TRUESENSE

 

TRUESENSE technology

"The results of implementing this new architecture are significant. Quantum Efficiency - the ability of a pixel to convert light into charge - is improved by 10. Crosstalk - the unintended detection of light by a neighboring pixel - is reduced three-fold. And Dark Current - a measure of the background signal detected by the sensor in the absence of any incident light - is reduced by 30 times or more compared to current CMOS pixel designs. All of these combine to redefine the capabilities of CMOS image sensors, bringing them in line with the performance available from comparable CCD devices today."

 

Without some form of physical shutter to protect it the chip and filter can fade or get burnt by focused sunlight just like the old rubber and silk blinds.

 

This conventional 50 Mp full frame chip is available for cameras.

http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/business/ISS/datasheet/fullframe/KAF-50100LongSpec.pdf

 

Add some TRUESENSE and maybe something is brewing?

 

Unfortunately the S2 optics image quality and handling makes it a bit pointless in a full frame SLR, but TRUESENSE and an S3 why not?

[mjh]

This conventional 50 Mp full frame chip is available for cameras.

http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/business/ISS/datasheet/fullframe/KAF-50100LongSpec.pdf

I would like to point out that in the context of this sensor (KAF-50100), “full frame” refers to “full-frame transfer”, i.e. the type of CCD, not to its size. The S2, M8, M9, and the DMR all have full-frame transfer CCDs. The KAF-50100 (as seen in, for example, the Hasselblad H4D-50) measures 49.1 x 36.8 mm, so it is roughly twice the size of a “full frame” (i.e. 36 x 24 mm) sensor.

[pierovitch]

Sorry I should have put in frame size.

 

50Mp interline transfer for a 35mm frame is a bit pointless in terms of effective optical resolution in an R type SLR format, but the filter technology has possibilities in larger format sensors like the S2.

[mjh]

50Mp interline transfer for a 35mm frame is a bit pointless in terms of effective optical resolution in an R type SLR format, but the filter technology has possibilities in larger format sensors like the S2.

I had covered this filter pattern in an article for LFI (“Let there be Light!”, LFI 2/2008), almost three years ago; I was sceptical then and I have to admit I remain sceptical.