14 DAY TRIAL // Last month, Sony posted the first image of what promises to be an important advancement in digital imaging technology, the curved full-frame sensor.
News of the upcoming system has surfaced in April, as Sony hasn't done much to keep this info a secret. Sony has developed the sensor entirely in-house, using techniques and machines designed by Sony R&D.
Now, the first photographs taken with Sony’s revolutionary new sensor tech have been posted online by Nikkei (as spotted on Sony Alpha Rumors). On top of that, the story includes a bunch of extra information detailing the tech.
According to the report, the sensor has been designed and conceived to mimic eyes, which brought about a few perks.
First off, we should note that the sensor has been created to boast the same level of curvature found in the human eye. On a curved sensor, light rays will be hitting the corner pixels straight and not obliquely.
Curved sensors are said to be 1.4 times more sensitive in the center and 2 times more sensitive in the corners.
The particular shape of the sensor allows compatibility with smaller lenses with wider aperture. On top of that, vignetting and aberrations should be a thing of the past. Last but not least, the curved sensor will reduce the “dark current” of the sensor, hence reducing noise.
The information reveals that Sony says the first prototype curved sensor is not the same resolution as other Sony FF sensors, so for starters we’re going to have a lower rest first version. This is ready for mass production.
Apparently, Sony had difficulties designing zoom lenses “of high power” for the curved sensor. This part comes to sediment the theory that the first camera to arrive boasting this technology will be a fixed lens system, something akin to the RX 1 followup.
When it unveiled the technology, Sony showed a 43mm (Full Frame) and 11mm (for mobile devices) curved sensor at the 2014 Symposia and VLSI Technology and Circuits.
Anyway, the first picture posted using Sony’s new sensor tech doesn't reveal much about the quality or other characteristics of the sensor. Nevertheless, it’s pretty cool to see the technology isn't in its prototype stages anymore. Sony seems to be quite serious about it and has already implemented it into a device for testing purposes.
So how would you feel about a new RX FF camera with that lens combined with a Zeiss 35mm f/1.8 lens? Sony patented such a set-up a while ago and we might actually get to see it arrive in the wild at some point.