Sony's New Curved Sensor Array - Photo Released

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>Sony innovation advances with the official release of a photo its curved camera sensor array <a href="http://petapixel.com/2014/06/13/first-image-sonys-revolutionary-curved-sensor-released-photo-nerds-giddy/">HERE</a>.<br>

Sony presented the tech this week at <a title="" href="http://www.vlsisymposium.org/" target="_blank">the 2014 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits</a>, where it showed off both full-frame (43mm) and mobile phone-sized (11mm) versions of the curved sensor.</p>

 

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>Interesting. I have been wondering how long it would take for a manufacturer to produce these.<br>

Good news for Leica fans and full frame mirrorless shooters.</p>

[david_smith110]

<p>This is very interesting indeed. Hopefully it is a valid new technology with real world applications that Sony will learn to exploit in the future for true advancements in photography. In other words, I hope that its not just curved for the sake of being curved. I am pretty excited about this although it probably wont show up in an interchangeable lens camera for a while.</p>

<p>But on this note of innovation, Sony just seems to be on a roll recently. You can tell there are people at that company that are serious about bringing new technologies and advancements to the world of digital imaging. It really make one thing about the 'apparent' lack of innovation on industry leader Cannons part. </p>

<p>No, Im trying to start a "Sony is better then Cannon" flamewar. Its just that Sony seems to be pushing for change at a frantic place. Of course if you are not one of the big two and you want market share then I suppose this is what you have to do.</p>

<p>Kudos to Sony for thinking (and producing) outside the box. Every shooter everywhere can only benefit from this in the long run.</p>

[sgust]

<p>Makes me wonder how this would affect the field of focus on lenses designed for flat sensors/film.</p>

 

[phule]

Siegfried, You're not thinking

like Sony. This represents a

golden opportunity to sell an

entirely new lens line with a new

mount. ;)

[sgust]

<p>I'm not sure it will require a new mount as long as they keep the dimensions and positioning of the sensor pretty much the same. But by my reckoning, an existing flat-field lens will end up producing a field of focus that extends away as you move from the center of the image. It wouldn't render existing lenses useless. It might even make for some interesting images. But I fully expect a line of lenses optimized for the new sensors if these make it to production. It'll be interesting once reviewers get their hands on a camera with one of these.</p>

[phule]

<p>[[i'm not sure it will require a new mount as long as they keep the dimensions and positioning of the sensor pretty much the same.]]</p>

<p>They will find a way! :) </p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>Without new lenses this technology has no purpose, so as Rob says - a new lens line will be needed...until, that is, Sony move onto the next thing in about 10 minutes time.</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>I would expect the first releases of this tech to be in a compact camera with a non-interchangeable lens. Then the entire imaging system can be fixed and optimized to the greatest advantage. Phones represent a similar opportunity. I wonder what kind of lens size/construction/image quality differences will be realized when optical field curvature is no longer an issue. Super flat field from standard lenses? High speed, ultra compact zooms for phones? Interesting tech.</p>

[phule]

I joke about the lens mount but

yes, this is amazing stuff. I

hope we can get better, faster,

more compact lenses. Maybe a

digital Olympus Stylus Epic!

[david_smith110]

<p>When and if this makes it to an interchangeable lens camera then Sony (and any other maker) would be completely justified in making an entirely new line of lenses. A new sensor technology like this <em>requires </em>a new line of lenses to exploit it. As a matter of fact, I can think of no better reason in recent years for a company to design an entirely new batch of lenses.</p>

<p>A design like this has the possibility to significantly change the way sensors and glass work together to create images. This isnt just some new mount design that is a knee jerk reaction to swiftly changing camera fads. This has the possibility to be a paradigm shift of massive proportions.</p>

<p>If there are major advantages to using a curved sensor with lenses designed specifically to exploit this technology and the results show noticeable benefits (sharper edge to edge, less CA, etc) then I believe we have just witnessed the event that will justify Canon and Nikon developing a whole new line of mirrorless cameras, now that they truly have a reason to justify the expense of a new set of lenses. That is, depending on how many patents Sony owns on this new tech.</p>

<p>Time will tell. This looks promising and I personally hope it is.</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>Quote from the conference presentation abstract by the Sony researchers:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"We realized an ultimately advanced imaging system that comprises a curved, back-illuminated CMOS image sensor (BIS) <strong>and integrated lens</strong> which <strong>doubles the sensitivity</strong> at the edge of the image circle and increases the sensitivity at the center of the image circle by a factor of <strong>1.4</strong> with <strong>one-fifth lower dark current</strong> than that of a planar BIS. Because the lens field curvature aberration was overcome in principle by the curved sensor itself, the curved BIS enables higher system sensitivity through design of a brighter lens with a smaller F number than is possible with a planar BIS."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>So, I am not familiar with this innovation, but my highlighted figures of double, 1.4 times increased sensitivity, or reducing dark current by 20 % (1/5th lower), do not seem to me so revolutionary at first sight, at least no more so than, say, increasing the aperture of your 50mm f1.4 lens to f1.0 with a consequent doubling of sensitivity.</p>

<p>There are many other evolutive improvements that can be still made using the current sensor technology.</p>

<p>Look at what happened to the Ford T engine and that in a 2014 BMW or Ford Escape. Same basic internal combustion technology, but much improvement.</p>