Point Grey has just announced an 8.8
Mp version of their compact Flea 3 USB 3.0
camera. Inevitably,
packing an array of 4096 by 2160 pixels into a C-mount format sensor means the
pixels are pretty darned small, and that’s where this is interesting.
This hi-res Flea 3 is using a Sony
IMX121 color sensor with pixels just 1.75 microns in size. On learning that, my
first thought is “poor sensitivity and high noise,” but that might not be the
case. Sony are making a big deal of their “Exmor R” CMOS
sensor technology
that effectively switches the positions of the internal wiring and the
photon-capturing silicon. (Click the link to see a great animation of how it
works.)
This, it is claimed, increases
sensitivity by 6db and reduces noise by 2db. Those might not seem big numbers
but remember that it’s all logarithmic. Sony has one comparison image posted on
their site; it would be interesting to see a few more.
Two last points to mention: the
camera puts out 21fps at full resolution, which is a pretty impressive number.
Good thing USB 3.0 offers 5Gbits per second of bandwidth! And pricing? $945, which
seems like a bargain.
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4 comments:
High resolution sensors may sound tempting, but those with small pixels (less than 3.5microns) are limited in the lenses that will work with them. To take advantage of all of those pixels and reap the true benefits the lens will be quite expensive and even then you will be limited to large apertures on the lens. There is a very interesting article from a few years ago on the Vision System Design website that sheds some light on this. The article is written by Greg Hollows (Edmund Optics) and Stuart Singer (Schneider Optics). Follow the link below.
http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-14/issue-3/features/matching-lenses-and-sensors.html
It is also said that this particular sensor from Sony would be discontinued in the end of the year. Not sure why nobody noticed this.
Sony states that it will discontinue this sensor in the end of the year. Not sure why noone seems to have noticed
I couldn't find any note regarding this sensor and why (and if) it is discontinued.
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