24.81MP and 6.3 Frames per Second from Sony's First Full-Frame CMOS

Sony has made today an important step towards the big boys' playground where Canon and recently Nikon are playing the full-frame game. The Konica-Minolta inheritor has today announced the development of its first 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor. An impressive one, we might add.

With no less than 24.81 effective megapixels, the sensor measuring close to 36x24mm will be able to achieve 6.3 frames per second. By comparison, Canon 1Ds Mark III's full-frame sensor has a resolution of 21.1MP and can output 5 frames per second. Of course, a future Sony full-frame DSLR camera would have to have enough processing power to actually deliver the aforementioned 6.3 frames per second.

In case you have a hard time imagining 24.81 megapixels, think about having files with 6,104 pixels on the horizontal side and 4,064 on the vertical side.

And since we're comparing the two sensors, an important observation should be made. Canon's CMOS benefits from 14 bit Analog/Digital conversion, and Sony chose to stick with 12 bits. Considering that the new Nikons, D300 and D3, and the Canons, EOS 1D Mark III and EOS 1Ds Mark III, have 14-bit conversions, Sony's decision to go ahead with 12 bits is a bit strange.

However, the Japanese manufacturer is once again touting its proprietary Column-Parallel A/D Conversion Technique, which was first announced in August 2007.

Here's what the press release has to say: "Sony's "Column-Parallel A/D Conversion Technique" also provides each column within the sensor with its own A/D converter, minimizing image degradation caused by the noise that arises during analog processing while at the same time delivering an extremely high signal conversion speed."

It will be interesting to see what cameras will first benefit from the new 24.81-megapixel, 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor.


Device Structure

Image size Diagonal width 43.3mm (Type 2.7)
Total number of pixels 6236(H) x 4124(V) approx. 25.72M pixels
Number of effective pixels 6104(H) x 4064(V) approx.24.81M pixels
Number of active pixels 6096(H) x 4056(V) approx.24.73M pixels
Chip size 41.0mm (H) x 31.9 mm (V)
Unit cell size 5.94µm (H) x 5.94µm (V)

Major features

High picture quality in 35mm full size image sensor with 24.81M effective pixels

Column-Parallel A/D Conversion method" achieves high S/N and high-speed imaging

￭CDS/PGA(24dB)Circuit (PGA: Programmable Gain Amplifier)
￭12bit-AD Converter on chip
￭Diversified readout mode
￭All-pixel scan mode 6.3 frame/s (12bit)
￭Window readout

High-speed digital output (12 channel parallel LVDS output)