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Posts Tagged ‘developed’

Canon EOS R5 Is Being Developed, But Don’t Forget About the R1

27 Feb

The post Canon EOS R5 Is Being Developed, But Don’t Forget About the R1 appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

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The Canon EOS R5 hasn’t yet hit the shelves, but the rumors keep coming regarding Canon’s full-frame mirrorless line.

Rumors which promise something even more exciting (for those of us who can be patient, that is!).

Now, the Canon EOS R5 is plenty thrilling in its own right. It was officially announced by Canon earlier this month and is positioned to correct a number of the much-criticized flaws of the Canon EOS R and EOS RP, Canon’s two major full-frame mirrorless offerings.

In particular, the R5 promises to feature some form of in-body image stabilization, which is considered by many to be a defining aspect of mirrorless technology.

The R5 will also offer dual card slots, 20 frames-per-second continuous shooting with the electronic shutter (this drops to 12 frames per second with the mechanical shutter), and an incredible 8K video recording capability. The R5 is rumored to begin shipping sometime this July.

Canon is calling the R5 its “most advanced full-frame mirrorless camera ever,” and they’re undoubtedly right, though some might claim the EOS R/RP duo set a low bar.

That said, Canon seems determined to push their mirrorless lineups to greater heights. According to Canon Rumors, the R5 is “definitely not the ‘professional’ EOS R mirrorless camera” that Canon is developing, in reference to an action-focused mirrorless camera teased by Canon, one that would potentially rival the Sony a9 Mark II, as well as the Nikon D6 and the Canon 1D X Mark III.

Canon Rumors states that the “professional” camera, dubbed the “EOS R1,” should appear in 2021, and suggests that there may be a reveal in the final months of 2020.

In a sense, this Canon EOS R1 is only interesting as a marvel of innovation. We all want to see Canon push its mirrorless development to the next level (though advanced features do have a tendency to trickle down to lower models). But the EOS R1 will almost certainly be prohibitively expensive, and it won’t be the type of camera the average photographer wants or needs. Instead, it’ll be like its potential competitors, the 1D X Mark III, and the D6: interesting in concept, but relevant only for a niche audience.

The EOS R5, on the other hand, may be positioned much like the Canon 5D Mark IV. The 5D Mark IV is an impressive camera, and while it’s not Canon’s “true” professional option, it’s a body used by plenty of professionals. Many of these photographers hoped to see an upgrade in the form of the Canon EOS R and were disappointed by its lack of IBIS and single card slot.

So maybe, with the EOS R5, Canon will finally produce what was hoped for over a year ago.

What do you think? Are you excited about the EOS R5? How about the R1? If so, why? Let me know in the comments!

The post Canon EOS R5 Is Being Developed, But Don’t Forget About the R1 appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.


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Researchers have developed reset-counting pixel that promises near-limitless highlight capture

12 Oct
Figure 4 (from the paper linked below): Realized CMOS test chip: (a) photograph of the packaged chip, (b) screenshot of the layout.

German researchers have developed a pixel design with the potential for massively increased dynamic range. Their design, reported in the ‘Advances in Radio Science’ journal isn’t limited by the point at which it saturates, meaning it can continue to capture more highlight data when other sensors would become overwhelmed.

Unlike conventional CMOS chips, their ‘self-resetting pixel’ doesn’t simply ‘clip’ when it becomes saturated, instead, it resets and has a circuit that counts how many times it’s had to reset during the exposure. It also contains a conventional analog-to-digital conversion circuit, so it is also able to measure the remaining charge at the end of the exposure.

Figure 2 (from the linked paper above): The working principle of the self-reset pixel.

This would mean that you don’t need to limit your exposure to protect highlight data and can instead set an optimal exposure for capturing your subject, safe in the knowledge that this won’t result in blown-out highlights. In their paper, the researchers from Institut für Mikroelektronik Stuttgart created a series of test pixels with different designs, and will now focus on the one that gave the most linear response to different light levels, both in terms of its reset characteristics and its conventional ADC mode.

Figure 1 (from the linked paper): Schematics of the analog and digital parts of one pixel cell and a global control for all pixel cells.

Before you get too excited, though, this work is still at a fairly early stage and is primarily focused on video for industrial applications, though lead researcher Stefan Hirsch tells us: ‘basically it should also be possible to use for still images.’

At present, the additional counting circuitry ends up meaning the light-sensitive photodiode in each pixel is very small, making up just 13% of the surface area of huge 53?m pixels. A move to a stacked CMOS design, with the circuitry built as different layers, would increase this, with potential for 20?m pixels with more of the area being light-sensitive. A three-layer design could allow still smaller pixels. For perspective, the pixels in the 12MP Full-Frame a7S II are around 8.5?m, so there would need to be a lot of work done to find a way to produce a sensor useful as a consumer video or stills camera.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Uwe Moebus of Hasselblad – “We have learnt that we should launch products when they are fully developed”

30 Jun
Uwe Moebus, Hasselblad’s head of sales for Europe and MD of Germany. Photograph by Damien Demolder.

It has been interesting watching Hasselblad’s fortunes over the last couple of decades. When I began writing about cameras the V system wasn’t called the V system, and the company’s medium format film bodies were very popular with high-end amateurs as well as with professional photographers. I suspect that even in those days it was amateurs that contributed the majority of Hasselblad’s income, and the company was revered for quality, craftsmanship and very high standards. It seems Hasselblad is aiming to recapture that valuable amateur market once again and the X1D II 50C is the camera the company hopes will bring droves of non-professionals back to its door. The company’s product catalogue has been dominated by very high priced digital medium format models for quite a period of time, which has kept the majority of non-professionals away.

During the launch event for the X1D II 50C in London I got to speak to Hasselblad’s head of sales for Europe and MD of Germany, Uwe Moebus, to ask him how this relatively low-cost model came about and to find out what Hasselblad aims to achieve in the future.

‘We have learnt that we should launch products when they are ready and fully developed’

I asked Moebus what the company has learnt since the launch of the original X1D, and how that learning has been implemented in this new model and the way the company operates. ‘We have learnt that we should launch products when they are ready and fully developed for the market. We have also learnt a lot from our customers over last three years about what should be improved and we tried to bring this into the new camera.

Start-up time was an issue from the beginning – this is improved now – frame rate needed to be improved – everybody wants faster frame rates, though this is difficult with medium format because of the amount of data – and some people weren’t happy with the previous viewfinder. These things were okay in the first camera, but now they are much better and enhanced in this mark II version.’

Attracting amateurs again

We chat about how it had been some time since Hasselblad had dealt with the amateur market when the X1D came out and how things had changed since the days the film bodies were at their height. ‘Everybody thinks that the V system Hasselblad were only for professionals. The camera was about £5000 at the time, and actually almost two thirds of users were amateurs. So, working in this market is not so new to us. But in between, when medium format went digital, things became so much more sophisticated, complicated and expensive that our whole market turned around to the point that over 90% was professional. The number of cameras we made dropped a lot and the price went up a lot – and we had a much smaller customer base.’

‘There are fewer professional photographers and it is getting harder for professionals to make money’

‘Now though we will be turning that situation back again. There are fewer professional photographers and it is getting harder and harder for professionals to make decent money. So Hasselblad needed to look to the future and ask if those customers would continue to use expensive medium format cameras, or would they look at full frame cameras? We decided that ‘no’ many wouldn’t continue to spend on high priced medium format systems and that we needed to take a different route. We will continue to develop our H system, which is very high-end and for pros, but the new X1D will open a new market for us. Maybe we can go back to [how things were in] the 80s and have a lot of amateur customers.’

‘The purpose of this new model and its lower price is to broaden our market, to put the company on solid ground. We can do this by having more products: this X series, the H series, having a new V series with the CFV attached and the new 907X – this will allow us to develop our position in the market. Looking back ten years we only had the H system. Now though we can attract a new customer group. £5500 is still a lot of money but it is a lot less than these cameras used to be, and you can have a camera and a lens for below £10,000. This is a much bigger market for us.’

New electronics

The main changes in the new body are centered around performance and speed of operation, all of which have been achieved using a new faster processor and a whole new electronics system. Moebus wouldn’t say exactly how much faster the new processor is, but it has cut start-up time almost in half, has produced reduced shutter lag and black-out time between frames. It can also run the 60fps EVF while also adding 30% to the maximum frame rate – though 2fps to 2.7fps doesn’t sound all that impressive until you think of the data that is being moved. To cope with this new processor the camera has had a complete electronic make-over inside with an entirely redesigned system.

The new processor also helps the auto focus run more quickly, speeding up acquisition and tracking. Moebus said the system only has to read the area of the sensor beneath the AF points rather than reading from the whole sensor, so it is efficient and operates quickly.

‘We have further optimized the power management and the heat management systems’

‘New firmware also helps to run the camera more efficiently’, says Moebus, ‘and new systems are used to deal with the heat. We fixed the firmware in the original X1D to change the way the camera was always running all its systems all of the time, so that then only systems that were needed would be on while they were in use. The same is true in the X1D II but we have further optimized the power management and the heat management systems to make the camera work even better.’

The body is almost exactly the same on the outside other than the slightly remoulded grip and the much bigger rear screen, and it uses the same materials in its construction.

Evolution, but the same camera

I asked Moebus why this model is called a mark II and not X2D, for example. ‘There is more to come’ he joked. ‘This is an evolution of the original camera. There are some significant changes but it still looks like an X1D. It is not a completely new camera, which is why it has the same name.’ He wouldn’t be drawn on what would have to change to make it a revolution and thus completely new camera, rather than an evolution. I tried!

Hasselblad was never tempted to use a higher resolution sensor in this model, according to Moebus. ‘This camera was designed to have a 50MP sensor, and we were clear on this from the start. The X1D is a portable tool that captures high end images while maintaining is size and low weight to make it the most compact medium format camera on the market. The sensor we have used in the X1D II 50C is exactly the same one as is used in the original model.’

I was surprised at first that Hasselblad has placed so much emphasis on being able to record JPEG images – and that were was so much demand for more JPEG options. Moebus tells me that many Hasselblad users want to be able to shoot JPEGs and not have to spend time processing them afterwards. ‘Most professionals need raw data of course, but there is a market that requires JPEG only, so we have included the ability to shoot one file type or the other, or both at the same time. With the more accessible price of the camera we expect more amateurs to use it, and some of them just want to produce wonderful images straight from the camera. The X1D II 50C immediately delivers very nice JPEGs.’

I suppose that Fujifilm has also gone to some lengths to cater for the JPEG market in its medium format bodies, but it does too in the X series models. I was just curious that anyone would pay for a Hasselblad X1D and lenses and then record JPEGs, but having just seen the photo staff from luxury department store Harrods at the press briefing it clicked for me that I might not be their typical customer. Like Leica, Hasselblad has many wealthy fans who want a nice looking camera for their holiday snaps. Nothing wrong with that I suppose.

Cost reduction

Even though the X1D II 50C costs a good deal more than the average amateur camera, its price is significantly lower than the launch price of Mk I version – and the price of the Mk I version the day before the Mk II was announced. So, how was this price arrived at?

‘We have optimized production processes and our supply chain’ explains Moebus. ‘When we began making the X1D we were buying in lower quantities, but now we are buying more and in bulk. Buying more brings the unit cost down, so now we can make an even better camera for a lower price. These changes have not come about suddenly because the Mk II is an easier camera to make, but as a progressive journey since the beginning of the X1D.’

‘The whole organization has had to migrate to a situation where we are making many more products’

Hasselblad was caught out by the demand for the X1D and really struggled at first to produce enough units to meet its orders. Since then though the company has boosted its production line, its manufacturing processes and assembly to deal with much larger volumes than it had expected. ‘This hasn’t happened in a split second’ says Moebus ‘but the whole organization has had to migrate to a situation where we are making many more products. We had to do this without dropping quality as that would undermine the company and the brand. At Hasselblad image quality is everything. Everyone wants a fantastic picture. If you sacrifice this you aren’t going the right way. It was a stretch, but now we can make better cameras at a lower price.’

‘We are now in a position to be able to meet demand for the X1D II 50C. We are assuming it will be a popular camera, because of the features and the price, so we are prepared. We employed more people to meet demand for the Mk I so we are already in a good position. We will also be able to make the 907X and CFV II 50C on the same premises and cope with demand when the time comes. We are used to making digital backs, as we have been doing so since the merger with Imacon and also for the H system. The CFV II isn’t a new challenge for us to make, so we will be able to cope. The 907X is a nice slim camera with some mechanics and electronic connectors. We will be able to make an appropriate amount to feed the market. That shouldn’t be too complicated.’

Moebus isn’t prepared to discuss the price of the CFV II 50C or the 907X unfortunately, and argues that the original CFV wasn’t expensive – it was $ 15,000! We might hope though that with efficiencies in production and supply chain the cost of the CFV II 50C might synchronize with the drop we’ve seen in the X1D II 50C.

Moebus points out that the 907X camera and the CFV II 50C will have a whole system waiting for them once they are launched. ‘Often manufacturers have only a few lenses when a new camera system is introduced but the 907X already has nine native X lenses, and will also be able to work with H, V and XPan lenses – we have a complete line-up.’

Half an eye on the competition

We’d already discussed how Hasselblad reduced costs in the making of the X1D II 50C, but I wanted to know if the camera’s new lower price was a response to Fujifilm’s activities with its GFX series. ‘We are both in the medium format mirrorless market, so of course we look at what other people are doing in the same field. Primarily though we are looking at ourselves and thinking about what we need to bring to the market. We aren’t interested in copying and we don’t strive to make cameras that match others. That’s why the X1D is the way it is. The current price of the X1D II 50C reflects that we wanted to make the camera accessible to a larger audience, not because of Fujifilm’s pricing.’

‘We will listen to our current customers’

Hasselblad has been quite good at offering trade-in programs to encourage its H system users to move up the ladder to the newest equipment, but Moebus says there are no similar programs in place for the X series. But, he says ‘We will listen to our current customers’ meaning perhaps that if there is enough demand the company might consider it. The issue for some is that the new body costs less than the original did the day before the launch of the upgrade, so if you’d bought the original model the week before you might feel a bit annoyed. Moebus said the company was aware that this might be an issue, but that the most important thing was to make the new model accessible.

The best lens ever

After speaking to Moebus I was able to chat to other technical staff about the new 35-75mm F3.5-4.5 zoom lens. Hasselblad claims it is the best lens the company has ever made, so I asked what it was in particular that made it so. The answer it seems is MTF. Charts were produced that show the lens to perform to the sort of standard you’d expect from a prime lens – and much better in many cases.

Comparing the MTF at various focal lengths with the prime versions the company makes it is clear to see, in theory at least, that the 35-75mm will provide a prime-lens experience for those who don’t need super-wide maximum apertures. Even at the long end though the maximum F4.5 aperture is comparable to moderate telephoto lenses from past medium format systems – though with the X1D’s smaller sensor the ability to achieve differential focus will be a little more limited.

On its own the lens seems very expensive, but taken in the context that it really could replace three or four prime lenses it might begin to sound like a very good deal. In full frame terms the angles of view offered by the zoom are those we’d expect from a 28-60mm, so it encompasses 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 60mm lenses. Our only quality measure at the moment is just the manufacturer-provided MTF of course. How that and the other characteristics will translate into real life image quality we will have to wait and see.

Forward to go backwards

This clutch of product announcements from Hasselblad creates a very positive air around the company and its future. Even with the original X1D the company seemed in a much more precarious position as the shock at the size of the order book generated so many issues of its own. But the company survived that and has grown, and now seems on a much better footing – production is sorted out, buying can be done in more efficient volumes and Hasselblad is geared up for meeting its new enlarged market with popular products that more people can enjoy. Are the good old days back I wonder? Perhaps not just quite, but things are looking rosy for the future.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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MS Optics has developed the Sonnetar 73mm F1.5 FMC, a lightweight lens made for portraits

30 Oct

MS Optics, a niche optics manufacturer that operates in the basement of Miyazaki san’s Chiba, Japan home, has developed yet another custom lens for Leica M-mount cameras, the Sonnetar 73mm F1.5 FMC.

Inspired by his love for Zeiss’ Sonnar lenses, Miyazaki san created this medium telephoto lens with a unique aesthetic and lightweight design that’s perfect for portraiture. It’s handmade with five elements in four groups and features a multi-coating on every surface for a 97.5% transmission rate.

The lens measures in at 50mm/1.97in in diameter and 56.4mm/2.22in in length, and weighs just 197g/6.95oz. It uses an M49 filter and hood thread size and can focus from infinity to 0.8m/31.5in.

Below are a collection of sample shots graciously provided by Bellamy Hunt of Japan Camera Hunter, shot with the Sonnetar 73mm F1.5 FMC on his Leica M6 with Japan Camera Hunter’s own Streetpan film and filmed with a Canoscan 9000F.

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Bellamy Hunt has also shared a few digital images captured with the Sonnetar 73mm F1.5 FMC.

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Japan Camera Hunter says the lens is still in development and will be available “from the end of October.” As with all MS Optics lenses, numbers are very limited and delivery times are long due to the handmade nature of the lenses.

Japan Camera Hunter is currently selling the Sonnetar 73mm F1.5 FMC for ¥140,000/USD$ 1,252 and says “this is [effectively] a pre-order for the lens with expected delivery around the middle of November.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How Google developed the Pixel 3’s Super Res Zoom technology

18 Oct

In a blog post on its Google AI Blog, Google engineers have laid out how they created the new Super Res Zoom technology inside the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL.

Over the past year or so, several smartphone manufacturers have added multiple cameras to their phones with 2x or even 3x optical zoom lenses. Google, however, has taken a different path, deciding instead to stick with a single main camera in its new Pixel 3 models and implementing a new feature it is calling Super Res Zoom.

Unlike conventional digital zoom, Super Res Zoom technology isn’t simply upscaling a crop from a single image. Instead, the technology merges many slightly offset frames to create a higher resolution image. Google claims the end results are roughly on par with 2x optical zoom lenses on other smartphones.

Compared to the standard demosaicing pipeline that needs to interpolate missing colors due to the Bayer color filter array (top), gaps can be filled by shifting multiple images one pixel horizontally or vertically. Some dedicated cameras implement this by physically shifting the sensor in one pixel increments, but the Pixel 3 does it cleverly by essentially finding the correct alignment in software after collecting multiple, randomly shifted samples. Illustration: Google

The Google engineers are using the photographer’s hand motion – and the resulting movement between individual frames of a burst – to their advantage. Google says this natural hand tremor occurs for everyone, even those users with “steady hands”, and has a magnitude of just a few pixels when shooting with a high-resolution sensor.

The pictures in a burst are aligned by choosing a reference frame and then aligning all other frames relative to it to sub-pixel precision in software. When the device is mounted on a tripod or otherwise stabilized natural hand motion is simulated by slightly moving the camera’s OIS module between shots.

As a bonus there’s no more need to demosaic, resulting in even more image detail. With enough frames in a burst any scene element will have fallen on a red, green, and blue pixel on the image sensor. After alignment R, G, and B information is then available for any scene element, removing the need for demosaicing.

For full technical detail of Google’s Super Res Zoom technology head over to the Google Blog. More information on the Pixel 3’s computational imaging features can be found here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sensor breakthrough: Sony has developed a backlit CMOS sensor with global shutter

17 Feb

Sony has made something of a breakthrough in sensor development, announcing a new backside-illuminated stacked sensor that can read out every pixel simultaneously to enable global shutter. While the company has only made it work with a 1.46-million-pixel sensor so far, the nascent technology has significant potential.

The sensor is able to read out from every pixel instantly because each pixel has its own analog-to-digital converter (ADC) buried in a ‘bottom chip,’ which is stacked beneath a ‘top chip’ containing the active, photosensitive pixels. This allows all exposed pixels to be read simultaneously, rather than sequentially row-by-row as is done with traditional CMOS sensors containing far fewer ‘column parallel’ ADCs.

This instant read-out avoids the rolling shutter distortion caused by the time delay as each row of pixels is recorded one after the other. In most existing chips, fast-moving objects become warped as they progress across the frame, because the pixels at the top of the sensor were read earlier than those at the bottom. This can also lead to banding under certain types of artificial lighting.

Global shutter—reading out all of the pixels at once—solves both these problems.

Shot with an exposure time of 0.56ms

Sony claims its sensor is the first back-illuminated high-sensitivity CMOS sensor with pixel-parallel ADCs and a pixel-count greater than 1 million.

While one million pixels may not be much good to photographers, this is a big step towards the production of a photographic quality sensor. Chips with ‘global shutter’ need only an electronic shutter to record undistorted action pictures, boast the ability to use short electronic shutter speeds with flash, and are able to work under fluorescent and solid state (LED) lighting without banding.

In the end, a global shutter sensor like this be useful for both still and movie photographers.

It’s also a major improvement over current global shutter CMOS sensors, which have a photosensitive pixel, and then a ‘storage’ pixel that the charge is transferred to after the exposure is made. This storage pixel holds the charge until the column ADCs read out, row by row. The problem with this approach is that your active pixel area now has a bunch of dead space per pixel taken up by the ‘storage pixel’.

By going BSI and stacked, we believe this technology eliminates the need for the storage pixel entirely, because you can read all the pixels at once at the end of your exposure.

The company says it has had to include 1000x more ADCs than it would normally in a 1MP sensor. The extra ADCs would require far more current, so Sony developed low current, compact ADCs for this chip. Additionally, new high speed data transfer construction allows for the fast read and write speeds required to operate all the ADCs in parallel and transfer the digital data.

While it might be some time before one is ready for use in a standard camera, this is a big step forward for global shutter sensor technology, which has traditionally been plagued by higher noise levels and lower dynamic range.

When will we see it scaled up to larger, smaller pixel pitch higher-resolution sensors? Hard to tell, but we’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

Press Release

Sony Develops a Back-Illuminated CMOS Image Sensor with Pixel-Parallel A/D Converter That Enables Global Shutter Function

Sony CorporationSony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation Tokyo, Japan – Sony Corporation today announced that it has developed a 1.46 effective megapixel back-illuminated CMOS image sensor equipped with a Global Shutter function*1. The newly developed pixel-parallel analog-to-digital converters provide the function to instantly convert the analog signal from all pixels, simultaneously exposed, to a digital signal in parallel. This new technology was announced at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) on February 11, 2018 in San Francisco in the United States.

CMOS image sensors using the conventional column A/D conversion method*2 read out the photoelectrically converted analog signals from pixels row by row, which results in image distortion (focal plane distortion) caused by the time shift due to the row-by-row readout.

The new Sony sensor comes with newly developed low-current, compact A/D converters positioned beneath each pixel. These A/D converters instantly convert the analog signal from all the simultaneously exposed pixels in parallel to a digital signal to temporarily store it in digital memory. This architecture eliminates focal plane distortion due to readout time shift, making it possible to provide a Global Shutter function*1, an industry-first for a high-sensitivity back-illuminated CMOS sensor with pixel-parallel A/D Converter with more than one megapixel*3.

The inclusion of nearly 1,000 times as many A/D converters compared to the traditional column A/D conversion method*2 means an increased demand for current. Sony addressed this issue by developing a compact 14-bit A/D converter which boasts the industry’s best performance*4 in low-current operation.

Both the A/D converter and digital memory spaces are secured in a stacked configuration with these elements integrated into the bottom chip. The connection between each pixel on the top chip uses Cu-Cu (copper-copper) connection*5, a technology that Sony put into mass production as a world-first in January 2016.

In addition, a newly developed data transfer mechanism is implemented into the sensor to enable the high-speed massively parallel readout data required for the A/D conversion process.

*1:A function that alleviates the image distortion (focal plane distortion) specific to CMOS image sensors that read pixel signals row by row.*2:Method where the A/D converter is provided for each vertical row of pixels in a parallel configuration.*3:As of announcement on February 13, 2018.*4:As of announcement on February 13, 2018. FoM (Figure of Merit): 0.24e-?nJ/step. (power consumption x noise) / {no. of pixels x frame speed x 2^(ADC resolution)}.*5:Technology that provides electrical continuity via connected Cu (copper) pads when stacking the back-illuminated CMOS image sensor section (top chip) and logic circuits (bottom chip). Compared with through-silicon via (TSV) wiring, where the connection is achieved by penetrating electrodes around the circumference of the pixel area, this method gives more freedom in design, improves productivity, allows for a more compact size, and increases performance. Sony announced this technology in December 2016 at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco.

Main FeaturesGlobal Shutter function*1 achieved in a high-sensitivity back-illuminated CMOS image sensor by using the following key technologies:

Low-current, compact pixel-parallel A/D converter In order to curtail power consumption, the new converter uses comparators that operate with subthreshold currents, resulting in the industry’s best-performing*4, low current, compact 14-bit A/D converter. This overcomes the issue of the increased demand for current due to the inclusion of nearly 1,000 times as many A/D converters in comparison with the traditional column A/D conversion method*2.

Cu-Cu (copper-copper) connection*5 To achieve the parallel A/D conversion for all pixels, Sony has developed a technology which makes it possible to include approximately three million Cu-Cu (copper-copper) connections*5 in one sensor. The Cu-Cu connection provides electrical continuity between the pixel and logic substrate, while securing space for implementing as many as 1.46 million A/D converters, the same number as the effective megapixels, as well as the digital memory.

High-speed data transfer construction Sony has developed a new readout circuit to support the massively parallel digital signal transfer required in the A/D conversion process using 1.46 million A/D converters, making it possible to read and write all the pixel signals at high speed.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographer finds film in 1929 Zeiss Ikon camera, here are the developed photos

31 Jul

When photography enthusiast Martijn van Oers stumbled upon an original 1929 Zeiss Ikon 520/2 medium-format camera at a second-hand store, he didn’t expect to find an old roll of used film inside. The film, marked only with the word ‘EXPOSÉ,’ was made between the 1940s and 1970s, and the roll didn’t provide any clues about what lay hidden inside.

As Oers explains in a recent post on Bored Panda, the roll of film was successfully developed with the help of his friend Johan Holleman. Only four of the resulting photos contained enough detail to discern anything about the film’s history, but it was proven enough. Operating on a tip from a contact, Oers compared the photos to Google Street View imagery and determined that they were likely taken in the French city Biarritz.

Oers shared scans of the photos with the public; two elderly individuals, one man and one woman, are visible in them, though both people remain unidentified.

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He also shared photos of the folding camera itself, and the process by which the shots were developed:

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We spoke to Oers briefly, and he seemed thrilled by his find and all of the attention the photos were getting. And while you might think he plans to put the camera on a shelf as a memento, that’s not actually the case. He tells us that, while he normally prefers to shoot Nikon, he plans to start using the 1929 Zeiss Ikon camera as well.

Check out the final images and behind the scenes shots in the galleries above, and then head over to Instagram to see more of Oers work.

All photos courtesy of Martijn van Oers and used with permission.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Flat elements developed by Harvard could make camera lenses smaller, lighter and better

11 Mar

A team at Harvard School of Engineering has developed a method for making flat lenses that could dramatically reduce the size and weight of camera lenses in the future. The method employs tiny silicon antennas positioned on flat glass components to redirect light when it reaches the surface of the lens instead of relying on refraction and the thickness of glass to bend light in a particular direction. Learn more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Has Sony developed an interchangeable lens for smartphones?

20 Jul

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Rumor and tech sites have been buzzing about Sony’s upcoming smartphone, code-named Honami. Recent rumors have shifted to the possibility that the new phone will be capable of working with an interchangeable lens that may have its own sensor and some sort of storage built in, with the ability to communicate with smart-devices wirelessly and via NFC. Click through for more details about the rumors at our sister site, connect.dpreview.com.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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