CMOS or CCD?

My colleagues, being a conservative bunch, are adamant that CCD sensors are far superior to CMOS. I however try to keep an open mind. I think CMOS-based machine vision cameras have a few things in their favor, like high speed, dynamic range and resistance to blooming. However, I am forced to admit that the rolling shutter can be a significant drawback.

(A rolling shutter exposes a single line of pixels at a time, which mean that when acquiring an image of something in motion it will appear to slant. The alternative, a global shutter, exposes all the pixels simultaneously.)

So all this means that I was interested in a new product announcement from camera-maker IDS Imaging. They’ve recently unveiled a line of cameras that incorporate a new CMOS sensor from e2v. This, it is claimed, gives the best of both CCD and CMOS sensors. Hopefully that includes lower cost!