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What is the most important aspect of a camera to consider when looking to buy a new one? In this video, Committed have put camera sensors in the spotlight and examined how they have improved and what role they play in today’s photographic equipment.
Camera brands regularly release new cameras, with each model improving on its previous versions. However, video producer Chris Schodt of Committed points out in the company’s latest YouTube video that it may appear that camera sensors have not progressed as quickly in the recent past, although resolution has increased. Indeed, modern cameras, such as the Canon EOS 5D released in 2005, were already capable of producing high quality images more than ten years ago and continue to do so.
Camera sensors, in technical terms, can be described as a grid of photodiodes that act as a one-way valve for electrons. In CMOS sensors – which are widely used in digital cameras that photographers use today – each pixel has additional circuitry built in outside of the photodiode.
This pixel-based electronics helps CMOS sensors speed up as they can read and reset quickly, although in the past this feature could also help cause fixed pattern noise to appear. However, with the improvement of manufacturing processes, this side effect has been largely eliminated in modern cameras.
Schodt explains that noise control is crucial for a camera’s low-light performance and dynamic range, which is a measure of the range of light captured in the image between maximum and minimum values. In a photograph, these fall between white – as when pixels are cut or overexposed – and black, respectively.
In an ideal scenario, the camera’s sensors would pick up the light, which is emitted as photons, evenly to reconstruct a perfectly clear image. However, this is not the case as they hit the sensor at random.
One way to solve this problem is to produce larger sensors and bigger pixels, however, this comes with a high production cost and an equally large camera body like the Hasselblad digital back. H6D-100c which has a 100MP CMOS sensor and is priced at $ 26,500. .
Other solutions include the development of Backside Illuminated (BSI) sensors, such as that announced by Nikon in 2017 and Sony first in 2015. This type of sensor improves performance and speed in low light. Likewise, the same goes for a stacked CMOS sensor that offers even faster speeds, like the Sony Micro Four Thirds sensor released earlier in 2021.
Smartphones, on the other hand, take multiple images and averaged them together to improve noise and dynamic range, like Google HDR + with bracketing technology, which is also a direction that several modern video cameras have also taken.
Looking towards the future of sensor development, Schodt explains that silicon, which is the material currently used to make sensors, is likely to remain, although some alternative materials have been used like gallium arsenide and graphene. . Another possible direction is with curved sensors, although they make it difficult for users because curved sensors should be paired with precisely manufactured lenses. Concretely, photographers should buy a particular system without the possibility of using a third-party lens.
It is likely that in the future the focus will be on computer photography. Faster sensors and more on-camera processing to use smartphone-like image stacking could make their way to dedicated cameras, for example, in addition to advanced image processing by AI.
In the video above, Schodt explains in more detail the technical construction of the sensors and the correlation between their characteristics and the images obtained. Following Committed educational videos are available on the company’s YouTube page.
Image credits: Photos of camera sensors licensed via Depositphotos.
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