Sony Curved FF Sensor

[Samouraï]

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/first-image-of-the-full-frame-curved-sensor-made-for-the-rx2/

So Sony has developed this curved full-frame sensor. Apparently it'll be showcased in the upcoming RX2.

What does this mean for lenses? Will traditional designs work the same, but better? Or will new lenses need to be created to properly utilize the curved sensor? Can anyone better explain what this might mean for the future of photography and the future of using legacy lenses?

 

[Monochrom]

Hi, great news...a curved sensors will enable light rays to fill each pixel location in a better angle (hpefully 90º) so quality will be increased and italian flags will be avoided in some degree or fully.

Edges should improve a lot and for instance VC wides will perfomr great in comparison to the A7.

🙂

 

[marcr1230]

Kind of says this int the article - but sensors generally have a more limited ability to capture light when the light rays are not perpendicular to the sensor
Some Lenses are now designed to make more of the light exiting the lens nearer in angle to the lens axis
My guess is if you curve the sensor, you can collect more light easier
Better low light performance, less falloff and less need for adaptive optical mechanisms between the lens and sensor (micro lenses)

 

[gustavoAvila]

A curved sensor will substantially simplify lens design.

This will allow for small, high performance lenses at competitive prices.

However, legacy lenses will NOT work (on a curved sensor body) as they are designed to focus on a flat plane (rather than a spherical surface).

 

[Samouraï]

A curved sensor will substantially simplify lens design.

This will allow for small, high performance lenses at competitive prices.

However, legacy lenses will NOT work (on a curved sensor body) as they are designed to focus on a flat plane (rather than a spherical surface).

That's what I wanted to know. I think I'd prefer simpler, cheaper, and more perfect lens design at the cost of losing the ability to shoot legacy glass.

Is this something that will work fine with multiple lens lengths in an ILC? You just design every lens with the curve in mind? I guess the Sony FE lens lineup won't be filling out after all.

 

[jarski]

Hmm sensor clean in future isn't that trivial job anymore.

 

[GaryLH]

Will be interesting to see the results from this sensor in the future.

Gary

 

[MikeAUS]

The rumour is for the Sony RX2 with a fixed lens 35mm 1.8 🙂 So this is a fixed special design lens/sensor for RX2, so no need to worry about sensor cleaning and legacy glass just yet! Unless they port the same tech to Sony A7 Mark ii at some stage. Can't wait for the RX2 ...

 

[Rob-F]

Funny, my D700 seems to work fine as is. So does my D300. And my X10 and my X100. I can see that a curved sensor could be a good idea, but I'm not buying lenses all over again.

 

[peterm1]

"Flatness of field" i.e. the ability of a lens to focus light passing through the centre of the lens and the edge of the lens on the same plane (i.e. a flat sensor or film negative) has been the much sought after objective ever since cameras have first been made - and more particularly when they became "miniaturized" a la Leitz's efforts. This is a particular problem for fast lenses hence the expense of good ones due to the the need for special measures such as additional elements and aspherical elements to cope better with this problem. Think of the number of lenses that are sharp in the middle and poor in the outer edge. This is a hugely common probleem in lens design as there is a need to trade off performance against cost of manufacture. With a curved sensor, in theory you do not need the lens to deliver flatness of field as the sensor itself is not flat. It also means lenses will be smaller and lighter I would imagine. (I suppose such sensors are a good idea in theory in any event - think of the millions of years of evolution that went into the development of the human eye - with its curved "sensor", the retina.)

It should mean that lenses will not need to be quite so expensive (ie will not need to have extra elements to cope with spherical aberrations). Neither will aspherical elements be required for this purpose. Hence the benefits of a curved sensor. (I imagine the curve does not need to other than very very slight for this effect).

 

[Sparrow]

... surly it would need to be a parabolic-dish not a curved plane, and wouldn't either make it really complex to make a lens that focused from a fixed focal-point?

 

[Keith]

Hmm sensor clean in future isn't that trivial job anymore.

That was my first thought!

 

[Mablo]

I already have a fixed lens camera with curved sensor. It's called Agfa Clack. Beautiful German engineering from the -50's.

 

[Keith]

Funny, my D700 seems to work fine as is. So does my D300. And my X10 and my X100. I can see that a curved sensor could be a good idea, but I'm not buying lenses all over again.

That's the crux of the matter for sure.

But incremental improvements suck in new buyers every time ... and that's exactly what they are intended to do.

Anyway ... Panon made a camera called the Widelux in the early fifties and from memory it uses a curved sensor! 🙂

 

[YYV_146]

Funny, my D700 seems to work fine as is. So does my D300. And my X10 and my X100. I can see that a curved sensor could be a good idea, but I'm not buying lenses all over again.

I don't think this technology is intended to boost performance rather than create the possibility for compact, large-sensor systems.

Theoretically you could pull off a large-aperture design with 2-3 elements in a compact lens design, and still get good resolution over the entire sensor area.

 

[Spanik]

It will need a new kind of lenses that are not campatible at all with the old ones. So you can start buying all over again. Think DVD -> BluRay. Sony is master in consumer electronics. It is another shift to mass production of simpler things with more profit margin.

I already have a fixed lens camera with curved sensor. It's called Agfa Clack. Beautiful German engineering from the -50's.

Thought about that one as well. And it has an even much larger sensor. 😀

 

[MikeAUS]

It will need a new kind of lenses that are not campatible at all with the old ones. So you can start buying all over again. 😀

The Sony RX1 and this rumored RX2 comes with it's own specially designed lens, no need to purchase 'new' lenses - just the camera ...

 

[sevo]

As each focal length and lens design would need a different curvature, that is a rather irrelevant development regarding interchangeable-lens cameras - the corrections needed to match a lens to a mismatched curved field are just as complex to design as those for a flat field, so there is no (cost or quality) benefit from it. But it can help the makers reduce the amount of glass in fixed-prime compacts - so we'll see faster, better and/or smaller lenses there...

 

[Prest_400]

I certainly like its potential if/when (for sure it will be) exported to camera modules with fixed lenses.
If it can help fit a bigger sensor with better performance in a phone it's good. I am sure that sooner or later they will end making modules with this technology, as it will help a lot for overcoming some boundaries (physical size, thinness, lens limits). Together with its implementation on larger sensor imaging with fixed lenses (X100, RX2, RX100, etc)

 

[YYV_146]

As each focal length and lens design would need a different curvature, that is a rather irrelevant development regarding interchangeable-lens cameras - the corrections needed to match a lens to a mismatched curved field are just as complex to design as those for a flat field, so there is no (cost or quality) benefit from it. But it can help the makers reduce the amount of glass in fixed-prime compacts - so we'll see faster, better and/or smaller lenses there...

Exactly. If Sony makes an RX2 with this sensor and a fixed 35mm f1.4, perhaps with a tele-converter to 50mm FOV, I'm all in...