New curved Camera sensors

A curved lens - interesting stuff. Makes me think of the retina and iMax.

Spudnik510 wrote in post #19275888
Well there’s a reason the eye evolved from a flat light sensitive cell into a dish shaped light sensitive cell and so on obviously the optic nerve would be better if it was positioned on the outer retina not on the inner but the curved sensor would not have this issue the curved sensor would have better light gathering capabilities and lenses would be superior as they would not have to correct as many inaccuracies.

So our eyes used to be a flattened sphere? Where did that come from? Our eyes and our gear engineering don't really have any correlation to each other, we have flat sensors because silicon wafers are immensely easier to mass-manufacture from decades ago, and it was easier to change optical recipes to match, nothing more.

I fail to see where there is any kind of value to Canon or others to make this? They would then have to make yet a new line of lenses, and today's sales are dismal as compared to sales 10 years ago. That trend isn't going to change, revenues from dedicated stills/video consumer cameras (where consumers have hundreds of lenses to choose from now) will either flatline or continue to decrease.

ssj1 wrote in post #19275925
A curved lens - interesting stuff. Makes me think of the retina and iMax.

No, a curved sensor, not a curved lens. We already have those, between the optical lenses inside, and the lens baby.

If it could be articulated as to the BENEFITS to be had in a curved sensor, we might better understand the rationale for a project.

As it is, it seems like an engineering solution for a problem which does not exist...make a product, find a buyer.

Wilt wrote in post #19276114
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As it is, it seems like an engineering solution for a problem which does not exist...make a product, find a buyer.
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I don't see it that way at all.

To me, field curvature and vignetting and corners being softer than the center are all very real problems that bug the hell out of me. . And yes, of course a curved sensor would completely eliminate all 3 of those problems entirely.


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Tom Reichner wrote in post #19276174
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I don't see it that way at all.

To me, field curvature and vignetting and corners being softer than the center are all very real problems that bug the hell out of me. . And yes, of course a curved sensor would completely eliminate all 3 of those problems entirely.

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Tom, just to be not-the-devil's advicate...if a lens has a curved field, a flat wall is NOT fully in focus.
Making the sensor curved does NOTHING to bring the flat wall to be in focus (an optics expert needs to correct me if I am wrong about compensatory focus by a curved sensor with a curved field lens), it only captures what the lens delivers, a curved field of focus!

IF (big if) a curved sensor makes it easier to design an optic with a flat field, then there is a benefit...the wall is always in focus. But field curvature does not seem to be a common malady of most designs!

Your eye is a curved photosensor.

It doesn't help either that Sony and Nikon own patents on curved cmos sensors for crop and FF imaging platforms.

Fun topic, there are quite a few articles out there on this subject already, but ultimately it comes down to cost of good vs demand vs price that can be charged on whether this will ever hit consumer-based cameras.

Reasonable article about this possibly being an idea that is a bit too late.
https://cmte.ieee.org …ge-sensors-good-but-late/

TeamSpeed wrote in post #19276683
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Fun topic, there are quite a few articles out there on this subject already, but ultimately it comes down to cost of good vs demand vs price that can be charged on whether this will ever hit consumer-based cameras.
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I don't see it becoming widespread during out lifetimes, but think that it is likely to do so at some point within the next 100 years or so. . A lot of things are like that.


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Tom Reichner wrote in post #19276684
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I don't see it becoming widespread during out lifetimes, but think that it is likely to do so at some point within the next 100 years or so. . A lot of things are like that.

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If that is the case, I won't care then. I don't have all that many years left...

Well they have a new curved sensor before long it will be in the smart phones then every one will wonder why all these phones and bridge cameras have a superior sensor design to the one in their pro cameras and then the demand starts I hope I’m wrong but tech moves quick I’m guessing as soon as they put a curved sensor in a phone the pro mirrorless will be next in line but we will see and I do agree it would be silly to change it all up to quick but I recon in the next five years people are going to start moving over

Spudnik510 wrote in post #19276848
Well they have a new curved sensor before long it will be in the smart phones then every one will wonder why all these phones and bridge cameras have a superior sensor design to the one in their pro cameras and then the demand starts I hope I’m wrong but tech moves quick I’m guessing as soon as they put a curved sensor in a phone the pro mirrorless will be next in line but we will see and I do agree it would be silly to change it all up to quick but I recon in the next five years people are going to start moving over

I doubt Apple, Samsung, Google, etc. will use curved sensors in phones because the sensors will have to be thicker. Phone makers prefer to use software to deal with these problems.

Most phone pics are vacation snapshots and pictures of people (or food!) for posting on social media. I'm willing to bet at least 99.9999% of the hundreds of millions of cell phone camera users aren't pixel peeping in the corners.

Even for professional gear, I can't think of too many applications where perfect sharpness in the corners is that important in the real world. Of course there are always exceptions, but in general I don't see sharp corners as critical in most portraits, wedding/event photography, sports, or wildlife. Even in landscape photography, you want to draw the viewer's gaze to the subject, not have them dwelling in the corners. If corner detail is that important, then your photo is too busy and loses its impact.

Sure us gearheads in online forums like to look at pictures of brick walls and such, but there aren't many real world applications where that truly matters. Current professional quality f/2.8 zoom lenses, with a couple of percent of barrel or pincushion distortion, half a stop of vignetting, and a little bit of CA, have served many pros' needs just fine for a long time.

About the only application I can think of where field flatness and corner illumination and sharpness is really important is in copy work, capturing pages, documents, or artwork. Architecture photography too.

Astrophotography too, because you have lots of pinpoints distributed across the image. In the 1970's, companies like Celestron and Meade sold Schmidt cameras for wide-field astrophotography that had highly curved focal planes (I know "curved plane" is an oxymoron, but that's how they're described). These had special film holders that would bend the film to better match the curve of focus.

Spudnik510 wrote in post #19276848
Well they have a new curved sensor before long it will be in the smart phones then every one will wonder why all these phones and bridge cameras have a superior sensor design to the one in their pro cameras and then the demand starts I hope I’m wrong but tech moves quick I’m guessing as soon as they put a curved sensor in a phone the pro mirrorless will be next in line but we will see and I do agree it would be silly to change it all up to quick but I recon in the next five years people are going to start moving over

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You can calm down. . This kind of technology does NOT move quickly. . It takes manufacturers for freaking ever to adopt new technology such as this, and even longer for it to become mainstream. . I have no idea what makes you think these curved sensors are imminent.

And putting them in phones wouldn't make much sense, because the advantages of a curved sensor wouldn't make much, if any, difference in the image quality of phone cameras.

You seem hell bent on thinking these curved sensors are going to be upon us before we know it, and that all of our current bodies and lenses will be suddenly obsolete. . Do you have any idea how little sense it would make for manufacturers to do anything like that?


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Yep eyes evolved first from a flat light sensitive cell like the one lizards still have on their fore heads then the cell started to pit the advantage of this was better light gathering accuracy the creature was able to start pin pointing subjects and they had a better ability to gauge depth of field and also allot and I mean allot of engineering is directly inspired from biology we try to replicate biology in all manner of fields from electronics to medicine and the lenses would be easier to make and design if the sensor was curved the lens designs would be simpler and cheaper to make look it up on YouTube or google they talk about the advantages

I asked about benefits, but no one offered any. So I did a small amount of research to figure out "WHY curved sensor?" Found this article, and a few key sentences https://www.whatdigita​lcamera.com …ed-technology-guide-60556

"So the major benefit of Sony’s innovation is that it should be possible to make cameras with smaller and cheaper lenses.

Unfortunately, there is rarely such a thing as a free lunch, and the range of applications of the new sensor is limited to cameras with fixed lenses. Lenses don’t all have the same amount of field curvature, so to take advantage of the curved sensor it must be matched with the lens design. Today’s interchangeable-lens camera systems are designed for lenses that project a flat field. Putting a curved sensor behind those lenses would just replicate the blurred edge effect."

"So, unless a new interchangeable-lens system is developed, with all lenses possessing the same curvature as the sensor, using more than one lens with such a sensor is a non-starter. Moreover, such a system would be unusable with third-party and legacy lenses, so it’s unlikely that any manufacturer would make the R&D investment for a complete, stand-alone system."

The technology came in 2014...seven years later do we see products with a curved sensor, even from Sony who owns the patent (whose royalties other companies would have to pay)?! A curved sensor finally became available in 2020.
https://www.digitalcam​eraworld.com …re-now-commercially-ready

"However, while this is exciting news, don't expect to see these curved sensors being implemented any time soon. This is a huge leap forward in sensor technology and it will take time to incorporate into commercially available cameras."

It seems that a design advantage could be more compact optically simpler lenses. Beneficial for those seeking more compact and lighter kits. But would there be any point to mounting of past lenses from traditional flat sensors or film lenses?...so a kit would be nothing but new product purchases, little to no used equipment reducing kit cost.

For a company like Canon, this would mark the need for yet again a new lens mount...EF, EF-S, RF, M, and curved sensor lenses. That does not sound too thrilling an undertaking, from either a corporate or customer/user perspective!