Visual Industry Guide
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Sony announces 4.1MP 1/1.8-inch CCDs for Industrial Cameras featuring the industry's smallest 3.1µm pixel with improved sensitivity and smear. The new ICX808ALA (B&W) and ICX808AQA (color) CCDs have 2-channel output and deliver 18fps at full resolution.
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The Electrical Engineer blog compares image quality of Nokia Lumia 1020 based on 1.1um pixels with Nikon D800e DSLR having 4.9um pixel size. As expected, D800 is better, but in many cases the images are quite comparable - amazing job on Nokia side.Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Geek.com publishes Pelican Imaging demo shown at the Qualcomm Uplinq conference:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
EETimes reports that Rumbus presented the world's smallest camera at Trillion Sensors Summit being held in Stanford University these days. So far Medigus and Awaiba made the smallest sensors for endoscopy. Medigus' 1mm2 imager is said to cost about $1,000.
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While Sony and Panasonic bet on 4K ecosystem to give a boost to their imaging businesses, Consumer Reports lab compares HD TV quality with the new 4K systems and finds the improvement is quite marginal: "As long as Ultra HD TVs command a premium price over comparably sized HD sets, it's hard to justify the extra expense, especially given the reality that UHD's advantages over regular HD will be lost in most typical home-viewing situations."
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Image Sensors Conference to be held in London, UK on March 18-20, 2014, announces latest additions to its already impressive list of confirmed speakers:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Andrew Sarangan, Professor & Associate Director of the Electro-Optics Graduate Program at University of Dayton, OH talks about the University's image sensor works. Some highlights:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
STMicro published Q3 2013 report with a list of milestones achieved in the quarter. There are few imaging-related ones:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
SeekingAlpha's transcript of SMIC Q3'13 earnings call mentions a strong growth in image sensors:Camera Labs and DSLR Tips latest news and reviews Go to the original article...
The PowerShot S120 is the latest version of Canon's pocket camera for enthusiasts. Like its predecessor, it packs a 12 Megapixel CMOS sensor and a 5x 24-120mm optical range into a genuinely pocket-sized body, but the focal ratio has brightened to f1.8-5.7. Canon's also greatly improved the speed with the S120 firing an initial burst at 12.1fps, slowing a little to 9.4fps while memory remains, and the AF is also faster. Videos can now be recorded at 1080 / 60p, there's new Astrophotography presets, focus peaking and enhanced Wifi support for sharing. They all add up to a nice upgrade but is the S series still relevant against larger sensor compacts like Sony's RX100 II? Find out in my in-depth Canon S120 review where I'll closely compare these models along with other key rivals!Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Business Wire: Edwin Roks, Teledyne-DALSA EVP and GM in Holland, is promoted to become the whole Teledyne CTO. Edwin has been in image sensor industry for a long time, starting from Philips Semiconductor, then joined DALSA when it acquired Philips image sensor business.ASAP- As soon as possible
ALAP- As long as possible
Having worked in the photo industry for over 15 years I can see an increasing pressure on the speed at which jobs are supposed to be handled over to clients. When I was starting off we were still shooting film and often, to speed things up, developing it on our own Jobo ATLs.
We thought that it was really fast. We thought of it as ASAP. Shoot a few rolls of film, pop it into the processor and bang, it was ready for an edit and scanning. Since than digital crept in. At first slowly, with a laugh, as the resolution was so poor, yet steadily it overtook the market. Analog, is now a thing of the past, used by those of us who still love film and shoot it for fun, and those few pros who can afford to work ALAP, or at least sort off.
In one of his books I read, that Ansel Adams used to say- Photography is not about comfort; Few of us would be ready to go shooting with such a heavy load as he often carried on his back. Similarly we could say, that photography is not about speed or rushing. In the days when everything has to be ready ASAP we like to forget, that haste rarely goes in hand with quality.
I shoot pretty quick and yet like to take my time during post processing. It is usually hard for me to decide which final grade to pick. Lightroom, Capture One, DXO or what ever developer you use offer an amazing set of options which lets us go in so many directions. Many times when I have developed color styles for clients, we have discussed for long periods of time which grading is the best for a set of images, as each treatment changes, often drastically, the perception of an image. Understanding the photograph and it’s meaning requires time. We need to come back to the image after a few hours, or days (not on commercial assignments of course) and then at last the truth about the image strikes us. So obvious that at first overlooked.
Your workflow is surely different, and you may be as quick as flash, but each of us at some point needs a bit more time to think things through and give a finishing touch. For that we need a moment. I believe that we should constantly educate clients about the importance of not rushing jobs and a reasonable deadline is necessary to deliver quality. How otherwise can we stop the trend of ever shorter turnaround times and meaningless images? Of course it is a global trend and we can’t stop it. Educating our own ecosystem of clients will surely help us though, in our own struggle with time.
Lets not rush. A great image it worth more than countless snapshots. The more often we will give our utmost attention and craft to our creations, the more often we will be hired for those jobs where time is not as important as quality. And so:
Instead of ASAP go ALAP!
Tomasz
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A newly announced Pentax K-3 DSLR features "the world’s first AA filter simulator, which reproduces the effects created by an optical AA filter. By applying microscopic vibrations to the CMOS sensor during exposure, the K-3 minimizes false color and moiré. You have a choice of three settings to obtain the desired effect: “TYPE 1” to attain the optimum balance between image resolution and moiré; “TYPE 2” to prioritize moiré compensation; and “OFF” to prioritize image resolution. Thanks to this innovative feature, the K-3 offers the benefits of two completely different cameras — the high-resolution images assured by an AA-filter-free model, and minimized false color and moiré assured by an AA-filter-equipped one. You can switch the AA filter effect on and off as you wish."Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
PRNewswire, EETimes: SMIC announces the formation of SMIC's Center for Vision, Sensors and 3DIC (CVS3D). CVS3D consolidates SMIC's R&D and manufacturing capabilities for silicon-based sensors, TSV and other middle-end wafer process (MEWP) technologies. MEWP technology has led to significant advancements in CMOS image sensors, 3D stacked devices, and high performance TSV-based 2.5D and 3D systems-in-package (SiP). The formation of CVS3D is a strategic step in SMIC's technology differentiation strategy as SMIC expands its technology offerings to a global customer base. One of SMIC customers is said to be already in production using CVS3D's technology offerings, a few customers have multiple additional products in qualification.Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
EETimes published a nice story saying that when interpolating an image data, one needs to care not only about the interpolated data continuity, but also about the continuity of its first derivative. A discontinuity in the first derivative may create visible artifacts. The second derivative can be discontinuous, though.Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Korea IT News reports that Samsung LSI and Sony are competing for a primary sensor supplier status for a 16MP sensor in the oncoming Sansung Galaxy S5 phone. Sony used to have an absolute power on 13MP CIS for smartphones market. However, in the second half of this year, Samsung System LSI is said to be catching up with Sony at a high speed.
Nikon d610
The Nikon D610
is here and it is shipping. Since it’s October 8th release date at lot of people have been writing about the camera and no wonder. At a price tag of just $1999 the d610, with it’s 24.3-million pixels sensor is a steal.
Let’s sum up what’s on the web about it as of today, October 20th 2013:
– Nikon press release, brochure
– Dpreview published their preview based on a preproduction d610
– Ken Rockwell assembled an extensive review, also with all the specifications of the camera, its accessories and how it fares in comparison to the other Nikon’s as far as the specs go
– DXO Labs test the d610 and gives its sensor the same as the d600, very high, 94 grade. Their review covers not only what’s new in the camera, but also how it compares to the competition.
– Nikon Rumors confirms that users are not seeing any dust or oil spots, which as most people suspect was the reason for which Nikon decided to update the d600 so early in its life cycle.
– The Verge publishes an article concentrating on the difference between d600 and d610, while Imaging Resource puts the d610 in perspective to their d600 review.
d610
After digging into all that content we can clearly see that the d610 is a very slightly beefed up version of the d600. Is that bad? No, the d600 was, or is, a great camera, the oil issue of course created at first many problems for people, but nevertheless it still is a great camera with an amazing sensor. If the d610 is even better, than Nikon has raised the bar a tad higher.
So should you sell your d600 and head for your local photo store? definitely no, unless you think d610 looks so much better than d600… On the other hand, if you were thinking about buying the d600, but then decided to stick to your old body after hearing about the dust issues photographers were having, now may be the time to shell out that hard earned cash!
The d610 may not be an indestructible pro body, although it does have magnesium alloy top and rear covers, but don’t be fooled by that and the pop-up flash. It delivers outstanding 24MP images with 14 stops of dynamic range and very good high ISO capabilities. A few years ago all the pros would be ready to pay much more than 2K for it, so don’t get hyped about the fact that d800/ d800e has better resolution. Are you really making huge prints every second day? And even so, do you really think you would easily tell the difference? On top of that do you really have lenses which exceed the resolution of the 24MP sensor? I have retouched images for many famous photographers over the years and I can assure you, that many of them often shoot with funny old cameras and don’t mind the low resolution. So if you’re in for an upgrade and the extra K for d800 is a big leap, then don’t think about it and go for the d610; maybe just wait for a few more people to confirm the production version really rocks…
Tomasz
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Sony channel on Vimeo started to publish teardown videos of its various products. The one below talks about a complex design of the recently announced QX100 lens-style camera:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Qualcomm publishes its Snapdragon 800 still imaging capabilities promo:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Qualcomm Media publishes Purnam Sheth, Pelican Imaging' VP of Engineering, video story on computational challenges of multi-array camera:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Extreme UV photolithoraphy challenges extend to image sensor design for mask and wafer inspection. KLA-Tencor's patent application US20130264481 "Back-illuminated sensor with boron layer" by Chern Jehn-Huar, Ehsani Ali R., Delgado Gildardo, Brown David L., Chuang Yung-Ho Alex, and Fielden John gives a nice overview of these challenges:
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It came to my attention that an open source project Daala is developing a royalty-free video codec claimed to have better efficiency than the recently adopted H.265:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
ARM Blog published a guest post by Japan-based Synthesis Corporation optimizing its image processing IP for ARM Mali-T600 GPU. The two examples are super-resolution and HDR, both showing a significant speedup:
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PR Newswire: Omnivision announces OmniGlass reference design that combines a wearable display and a camera module: an ultra-compact and low-power OVP2200 liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) solution, a 4MP AF camera module with 720p HD video, and the OVP921, a companion chip that provides image processing, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi support.
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Biomics, a Russian Academy's of Science Journal on Biochemistry and Genetics, published an article on Ion Torrents pH-sensor-based genome sequencing history and progress:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Nobukazu Teranishi won 2013 IEEE Electron Device Society J.J. Ebers Award "For development of the Pinned Photodiode concept widely used in Image Sensors". Congratulations, Nobu-san!Camera Labs and DSLR Tips latest news and reviews Go to the original article...
Panasonic's Lumix GX7 is a mirrorless system camera aimed at enthusiasts who demand lots of control and features in a smaller form factor. The GX7 is a little larger than the GX1 it replaces, but squeezes in a tilting EVF with a 2.76 million dot resolution along with a tilting 3in touchscreen. There's built-in Wifi, NFC, focus peaking, a fastest shutter of 1/8000, and 1080p video with full manual exposure control. The resolution remains 16 Megapixels but in a surprise move, it's mounted on a shifting platform to deliver in-body stabilisation to any lens you attach. This all makes the GX7 one of the best-featured system cameras around, but how well does it work in practice? Find out in my in-depth Panasonic Lumix GX7 review, where I've compared it to the Lumix GX1 and G6, the Olympus OMD EM5 and EM1 and finally, the Sony NEX 6!Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
IEDM 2013 program has been published and has just two papers on image sensors:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Reuters: MIPI Alliance announces the availability of new version of its M-PHY specification. The M-PHY 3.0 doubles the current bandwidth (to 6.0Gbps per lane) while retaining the same distance reach as its predecessor. It also maintains the MIPI Alliance mobile priorities of low power, minimal protocol impact (modularity), and fast transitions between power states.
