Canon Patents a Foveon-type Sensor

http://www.canonrumors​.com …s%29&utm_conten​t=FaceBook

Interesting....

It will be interesting if they can get it up to a decent number of pixels without the cost getting ridiculous.

Sensor for the 3d

sensor for the 1ds mk 5

Kewl

So what's so great about the Foveon sensor?

http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Foveon_X3_senso​r

Anybody seen a comparison of Sigma SD10 to Canon 5d2?

drumsfield wrote in post #12718491
So what's so great about the Foveon sensor?

More color resolution and more dynamic range...

Basically, if you have an 18mp foveon array, it has 18mp for red, 18mp for blue and 18mp for green, a 18mp bayer sensor on the other hand would be more like 12mp for green and only 3mp for red and blue, This is why reds and blues can be a little off sometimes in photos

Theoretically, the Foveon sensors should have more natural tone gradation and a more pleasing color rendition in most images, Whether or not they really do improve things is usually debatable (As historically Foveon sensors have been SO behind the curve in terms of resolution it honestly didn't matter, throwing what is a 5mp camera up against say, the 18mp 7D really isnt fair)

However if Canon does it, and came out with a solid resolution Foveon sensor at a good price with good noise performance it could be the sensor of choice for portraits and landscapes

Not to mention the serious sharpness advantage of the Foveons (though some of this is only "perceived" sharpness). They don't need and thus don't have AA filters, so the detail captured even with the dinky 5mp equivalent sensors in the DP cameras is very impressive. If they can work out their high ISO noise issues, I would absolutely love a 12-18mp equivalent Foveon sensor. It's too bad that the only camera that's got something like that costs $8000!

cptrios wrote in post #12720322
Not to mention the serious sharpness advantage of the Foveons (though some of this is only "perceived" sharpness). They don't need and thus don't have AA filters, so the detail captured even with the dinky 5mp equivalent sensors in the DP cameras is very impressive. If they can work out their high ISO noise issues, I would absolutely love a 12-18mp equivalent Foveon sensor. It's too bad that the only camera that's got something like that costs $8000!

The good thing about Canon doing it is Canon I would suspect has a lot more money than Sigma, They also have a lot more (No offense to Sigma) experience in sensor and processor design

If Canon actually came out with this type of sensor, I'd wager a good deal of money it will make the Foveon look primitive by comparison, By the sheer fact that Canon will throw more money into R&D and wouldnt rush something to market

I'm not sure Canon can solve the noise issue completely, That will be intrinsic to these types of sensors (you have essentially 3 photosites, So on paper, 3 times the noise) but I'm pretty sure Canon can get the issue better controlled than Sigma can at the moment

KenjiS wrote in post #12720614
The good thing about Canon doing it is Canon I would suspect has a lot more money than Sigma, They also have a lot more (No offense to Sigma) experience in sensor and processor design

I think more important is the experience Canon has with cpus for their cameras. Sigma's are just god-awful.