This past week, the PetaPixel team came across an opinion on a photography blog that we didn't think was fair. In short, it argued that all "small sensor cameras suck," which is just not true.
Samsung and SK Hynix, both South Korean-based sensor manufacturers, are reportedly putting heavy emphasis on integrating AI tech directly onto an image sensor.
Intel is walking away from its plans to acquire Tower Semiconductor, a chip and CMOS sensor manufacturer that Panasonic once owned a major stake in.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed that the iPhone has been using Sony camera sensors for the last 10 years.
Peter Noble invented the solid state active pixel in 1966, a concept that is still used in brand new mirrorless cameras today via CMOS sensors.
The CEO of Sony's Semiconductor division claims that smartphone cameras will exceed the quality of single-lens reflex cameras within the next few years, specifically by 2024.
"Crop factor" is a term that is often heard in the world of digital photography, especially when discussing entry-level cameras. If you have no idea what it means, this article is a basic explanation that should help to fill you in.
Researchers have developed a novel way to give any modern digital camera the ability to calculate depth with a low-power and compact optical device.
Intel has announced that it will purchase camera sensor manufacturer Tower Semiconductor (formerly TowerJazz as of March, 2020) in a deal worth $5.4 billion.
Manufacturing silicon is patently not required in order to make cameras -- anyone can put together a pinhole model -- however, the wider point is more pertinent. To be a competitive, global, manufacturer, do you need to make the sensors that actually go into camera bodies?
Gpixel has developed a new global shutter 4/3-inch 10-megapixel sensor that it claims will be capable of shooting 4K video at up to 2,000 frames per second.
There is a purveying thought that larger resolution sensors, with therefore smaller pixels, are worse than lower resolution sensors, with therefore larger pixels, in low light. This is a myth.
Canon has filed a patent for a new shutter-like barrier mechanism that appears designed to protect the shutter and image sensor of its mirrorless cameras when a lens is removed, ensuring that no dust or debris can enter and cause damage.
A mechanical engineer has developed a camera with what is described as a "curvy" and eyeball-like adaptable imaging sensor that is based on the Japanese art of cutting and folding paper (kirigami) that he claims could improve the quality of some types of cameras.
The Sony Alpha 1 may have many impressive specifications, but one that stands out as having greater implications for image-making is the sensor readout speed: it's so fast it may be able to achieve the computational photography we see in smartphones in a full-size camera.
Samsung Electronics is reportedly in a position to challenge Sony's imaging sensor dominance. Sony had prioritized the supply of image sensors to Huawei, a strategy that has backfired; Samsung is apparently ready to take advantage.
One of Sony's crown jewels in its empire is its image sensor business, which dominates global market share and has helped the company hit record profits. But now a famous investor is calling for Sony to spin-off the sensor business into a completely independent company.
Huawei's new P30 Pro smartphone has jaw-dropping low-light abilities and industry-leading image quality. The company has been touting its quad camera system as being co-engineered by Leica, but here's an interesting piece of info that isn't being widely publicized: all the imaging sensors were made by Sony.
Here's a peek of what's to come in the camera industry: Sony is reportedly getting ready to announce two new full-frame sensors, one of which will be capable of 60 megapixel photos, 16 channels, and 8K video recording.
Canon is now officially in the business of selling sensors. Third-party companies can now purchase three of Canon's state-of-the-art sensors, including the 120-megapixel monster that has received a significant amount of attention in recent years.
Sony is the 800-pound gorilla of camera sensors these days, boasting a global market share of around 50% in late 2017, but increased competition may be looming on the horizon. Samsung is reportedly ramping up its image sensor production capacity with a goal of overtaking Sony for the #1 spot.
A common rule of thumb to figure out your maximum shutter speed for sharp stars at night is to divide 500 by your focal length. Sometimes it's called the 600 Rule or the 400 Rule or several other numbers that can be used depending on your sensor size. Unfortunately, it's a a very inaccurate rule today.
Sony is one of the heavyweights in the camera sensor business and a company that produces sensors for rival camera companies, including Nikon. But when it comes to Sony's best sensor designs, the company apparently keeps those precious sensors exclusively in-house for its own cameras.
Since the introduction of the Fujifilm X-Series line of cameras, reviewers and consumers have struggled to compare them directly to the competition. Fujifilm’s is a tightly integrated system, wherein everything is a little bit different.
Fujifilm caused a great deal of excitement this week by announcing its first medium format mirrorless camera, the 51MP GFX 50S. But "medium format" is a a relative term rather than a specific sensor size, so how does the new 50S's sensor stack up against other digital cameras on the market?
Sony has become the world leader in image sensor production in recent years by supplying the sensors to third-party companies. Canon, however, has been content with using its sensors solely in-house on its own cameras and products. That's set to change: Canon is now planning to supply Canon-made CMOS sensors to other companies for the first time in the company's history.
Over the past couple of decades, CMOS sensors have come to dominate the digital photography landscape thanks to their increasing quality and falling costs. If you're unfamiliar with the differences between CMOS and CCD sensors, CEI-Europe has created a helpful infographic that compares the two technologies.
Sony's image sensor business has seen meteoric growth in recent times, but it seems that things are now cooling down. The company just reported its earnings for its latest quarter, and things aren't looking as rosy as they were before: Sony reports a "significant" decrease in image sensor sales.
What makes one smartphone camera good and another one bad? YouTube tech video star Marques Brownlee of …
Sony announced a few years ago that digital imaging would be one of its three main pillars (with the other two being games and mobile). It looks like the decision is paying off, and Sony is doubling down on its plans. After making 40% of all image sensors sold in 2014, Sony is now announcing that it will raise $4 billion in funding in order to increase how many sensors it can produce.
This week it was discovered that Samsung has been using Sony image sensors in some of its S6 smartphone cameras, but Samsung sensors in others. Some publications guessed that the decision may have been due to a shortage of Sony-made sensors, which have been increasingly popular in recent years. That theory is now being bolstered by a new report that Sony is indeed struggling to keep up with surging demand.
Sony may not make the world's most popular smartphones or cameras, but it's playing a bigger role in those industries than what meets the eye: the company's image sensor business has been booming in recent years. In 2014, Sony was the company that made 40% of all the sensors sold across the globe.
The camera on smartphones is one of the main selling points these days, and Apple is working hard to push its iPhone camera ahead of the pack. A newly discovered patent reveals that Apple has created an innovative sensor design that increases quality by using three separate sensors and a prism for splitting light.
The low light performance in your future camera may be improved thanks to new research in "nano earthquakes." Researchers have found that sound waves can be used to improve the electronic properties of 2D materials, paving the way for things such as camera sensors that can capture better shots in dark environments.
Researchers at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed a graphene image sensor one thousand times more sensitive to anything available on the market today. The sensor is capable of detecting broad spectrum light, making it a great solution for all types of cameras. Its uses could include traffic cameras, infrared cameras, and so forth.
Fujifilm’s new X-Trans sensors diverge from the traditional way CMOS sensors are designed by using an irregular …
Mirrorless cameras feature sensors larger than compact cameras and bodies smaller than DSLRs, but how do their sensor sizes compare with one another? To give you a better idea of how formats such as Nikon CX and Olympus/Panasonic Four Thirds stack up against each other, Digital Camera Database created this helpful graphic showing the relative sizes of each format.
Electronics reverse-engineering company Chipworks has published an article that discusses and reviews Nikon’s …
With each new generation of popular digital camera lines, consumers generally expect that feature upgrades also be accompanied by improvements to the image sensor. According to camera testing service DxOMark, that's not the case with Canon's entry level DSLR lineup.
Photos and details of Nokia's upcoming Lumia 920 smartphone leaked earlier this week, revealing that the new flagship Windows phone will feature a 8-megapixel sensor, a 4.5-inch display, 32GB of storage, and wireless charging via a special pad.
Although the camera specs seem rather pedestrian compared to the 41MP 808 PureView, patents published last month reveal that the company is working on some special sensor tech for future devices. More specifically, Nokia is working on developing camera sensors that use layers of graphene -- one-atom-thick layers of carbon -- for big performance advantages over existing sensors.