Why Big Sensors are Better - size not pixels count.

[iCe]

My guess would be that it's a signal to noise ratio thing. But that's just a guess.

[PeteQ]

Gotcha Daniel.... I may have to swing by B&H on my visit to NY. But I am afraid, much like the 200/f2, once I actually touch one...it's like an infection!

[Daniel Bates]

I liked the SuperCCD concept of the Fuji. Dynamic range is better than megapixels in my opinion...

[evil4blue]

Originally Posted by Silvernic

Back to the sensors here. I'm wondering why other companies don't persue the foveon (spelling?) type sensor. It just seems like an amazing concept to me in fitting more photosites (well, sorta) in a smaller place. Plus, it seems logical that each photosite would be so much more effective due to not losing 1/3 of color information for each site.

Anyone know more about these sensors and why they're not as popular as it seems to me that they should be?

Well, there are companies trying to work on a Foveon like sensor. Both Sony and Fuji have filed patents that use very similar concepts to Foveon. The big problem is Foveon owns umpteen patents on not just the technology, but the concept of acquiring RGB data on one photosite. This is what is really tying the hands of most other sensor makers.

The good this is, the Patent are 7 years long and we're in about year 5.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by evil4blue

Well, there are companies trying to work on a Foveon like sensor. Both Sony and Fuji have filed patents that use very similar concepts to Foveon. The big problem is Foveon owns umpteen patents on not just the technology, but the concept of acquiring RGB data on one photosite. This is what is really tying the hands of most other sensor makers.

The good this is, the Patent are 7 years long and we're in about year 5.

Post 1995 patents are now for 20 years and pre-1995 are for 17.

Canon has a patent on a "cyclic' sensor that is Foveon like but changes its sensitivity at the rate of 50kilohertzs for a single photo site or so the rumors go.

[evil4blue]

My bad on the patent thing.

[cmalana]

We currently use the 3 sensor sizes that Canon produces (1.6x, 1.3x, FF) and the camera that gets the most use (keeping in mind we do wedding photography) is the 5D (FF). It might be subjective but I can pretty much tell the difference between images from all 3 cameras (of course, whether most clients can really distinguish between them, especially when printed on album sized pictures is probably debatable).

I'm really curious on what will be getting announced next month since we will be adding another camera early next year at the latest.

[engstrom]

Originally Posted by evil4blue

And one more thing, the article never talks about the "Quality" of light hitting those outside photosites of the sensor and how the COC does not equally cover a FF sensor (corners recieving less light).

Stevil, you mean image circle, not circle of confustion, right?

[evil4blue]

Originally Posted by engstrom

Stevil, you mean image circle, not circle of confustion, right?

Yeah, I must have drank my stupid juice this morning. Where would I be with out you guys.