Sony's new image sensor can shoot 1080p @ 1,000fps video thanks to on-chip RAM

07 February 2017
In an industry first, Sony created a 3-layer image sensor that also improves still image quality.

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  • Stan
  • ktG
  • 08 Feb 2017

alikh, 08 Feb 2017Completely agree with you on SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), b... moreSure, that's a very good point, but it's still software processing. Visually software processing produces a bit of a different effect, than say a fast prime. It might be negligible, but in a hands of a professional (i certainly do not consider myself to be one), the difference is stark. You're never going to see a pro photographer using a smartphone as a backup camera at a wedding.

I personally believe that there is a place for everything, I have a DSLR(actually a DSLT - Sony A65 with a 16-50 f2.8 and a 70-200 f2.8), which I use when I travel, but for every day use I have my smartphone.
Out of all smartphones LG V20 is about as close as you can get to a semi-professional camera. With a full set of manual controls, it's has the best camera app out there. Only it's lacking a bit in sensor performance. Would have been great to have an app like that in google pixel.

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    • Stan
    • ktG
    • 08 Feb 2017

    Trenton , 08 Feb 2017Yeah go read my reply to Stan. When you get your major in F... moreThat was not me commenting....

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      • Stan
      • ktG
      • 08 Feb 2017

      Trenton , 08 Feb 2017Yeah please explain to me why phone manufacturers are worki... moreStop trolling, you already showed everyone that you dont know anything about anything, including economics. Nobody buys compacts anymore, yes. People who are shooting in Auto mode, like you, dont buy DSLRs anymore either, yes. But dont talk to me about technology, when you clearly have a lack of understanding it. Come back to me when you have a degree on opto-mechanical engineering, with electronics in tow. You cant change laws of physics, and thats a fact.

      And you can do better than linking an article that talks about film cameras in 2008...

        Trenton , 08 Feb 2017Yeah please explain to me why phone manufacturers are worki... moreDecrease(very negligible) in demand and price of DSLRs, is due to the entry of mirrorless cameras and advanced compact cameras and not because of camera present in your mobile. All those tech crammed into mobiles is just to please guys like you and not to replace DSLRs.

          Trenton , 08 Feb 2017Yeah please explain to me why phone manufacturers are worki... moreSo the same company which produced the lens mentioned in this article also produces DSLRs and Mirrorless Cameras which are also very popular for so many photography aspirants? Why? Why not even a single professional photographer worth his salt shoots his pics in DSLR instead of mobiles? Lets say sports or nature or any other scenario no professional photographer ever uses a mobile camera. Why? You are saying mobile cameras are so much advanced and they even better than DSLRs but in reality they never became a tool for the professionals? Can you please explain why so?

            Treton you are obviously a troll. As many have said below smartphones are trying to mimick dSLR than coming close to it. iPhone with 55mm equiv. focal length second cam that doesn't work at the same time as the primary camera and has bad aperture of f/2.8, Portrait mode that is purely software feature. Huawei with second monochrome cam to make monochrome contrast mask to enhance color cam's photos. All software tricks. Good enough for ordinary people like you. People who are majority. DSLR is stagnating very slowly in comparision with compacts, mirrorless are getting more popular. Don't forget it. Sony is quite different in this case- their sensor has a DRAM layer of only 125MB (1 Gb) of memory for 960fps slowmo stream- aprox. 4 seconds of slowmo. So this technology is limited by small RAM memory and potential huge amount of data that CPU will have to process latter to create a 1080p video with more than a 10-30s seconds of 960fps 1080p scene that is playbacked at 15fps. And indeed thr need of cooling sensor to reduce noise. It's awesome indeed but further works is needed, 4s is kinda too short. Bigger memory= bigger sensor size, therefore morre preferable and useful usage for such sensor is on a slowmo camera.

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              • Trenton
              • teX
              • 08 Feb 2017

              Anonymous, 08 Feb 2017Nope.. Because phones are getting thinner thus phone camera... moreYeah go read my reply to Stan. When you get your major in Financial Economics come back to me.

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                • Trenton
                • teX
                • 08 Feb 2017

                Stan, 08 Feb 2017So i'm going to ignore your try to troll, and just going to... moreYeah please explain to me why phone manufacturers are working tirelessly to include newer and better technology in their cameras. And why the price and demand for dslrs have drastically reduced. All your camera related jargon doesn't defeat technology and economics.

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                  • Stan
                  • ktG
                  • 08 Feb 2017

                  consumersmartphone, 08 Feb 2017I wonder if people who commented below understand/have idea... more2 words - professional applications.
                  Or a gimmic in a smartphone.

                  Well, thats more like 10 words, but in any case, such feature is just for marketing in smartphones. But in professional world, there are multiple uses, like finding fracture points during testing of something cracking, google it....

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                    • Stan
                    • ktG
                    • 08 Feb 2017

                    DenisXD, 08 Feb 2017What are you on boy? Read again what's the size of the se... moreI think he got carried away :-)
                    Personal opinion - it will be in mid-end consumer camcorders first. Dare I say a 3 CMOS camcorder?
                    As for smartphones - Extra layer makes it thicker, which results in a thicker module. The way it stands today, for it to fit into a smartphone, it might just require its own space, front to back, without anything being behind it.

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                      • alikh
                      • B}H
                      • 08 Feb 2017

                      Stan, 08 Feb 2017So i'm going to ignore your try to troll, and just going to... moreCompletely agree with you on SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), because its a direct relation between sensor size and SNR. but I should mention that new stereo setups for camera-phones are awesome in depth of field and background extraction.

                        Anonymous, 08 Feb 2017Well.. you showup again. This kind of sensor is created fo... moreWhat are you on boy?
                        Read again what's the size of the sensor then what you said. It's built for smartphones.

                          consumersmartphone, 08 Feb 2017I wonder if people who commented below understand/have idea... moreThat kind of fps can benefit for 1080p HDR video by sampling multiple frame
                          And also prove the sensor capable of 60fps 4K recording which mention in article

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                            • Anonymous
                            • RIE
                            • 08 Feb 2017

                            Anonymous, 08 Feb 2017Well.. you showup again. This kind of sensor is created fo... moreNo. You are wrong. The original source have the title "Sony Develops the Industry's First*1 3-Layer Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with DRAM for Smartphones".

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                              • consumersmartphone
                              • K5u
                              • 08 Feb 2017

                              I wonder if people who commented below understand/have idea about "new image sensor can shoot 1080p @ 1,000fps video" and for what purpose of this kind of fps. Please someone tell the one who have no idea about this. PLEASE!

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                                • AnonD-642780
                                • D01
                                • 08 Feb 2017

                                wow..... this is why i love SONY....

                                  RaghavaZ, 08 Feb 2017Well the article also points to mobile usage "The connectio... moreAnd the size is 1/2.3", the same size found on Xperia for quite time now

                                    Anonymous, 08 Feb 2017Well.. you showup again. This kind of sensor is created fo... moreWell the article also points to mobile usage "The connection between the camera and the phone’s chipset is much slower, typically taking 1/30 of a second at that resolution. That connection hasn’t been made faster, but after the data is in RAM, the chipset can take its time reading it out (which also means that the image processing hardware doesn’t need to be faster or more expensive).
                                    "

                                      Anonymous, 08 Feb 2017Well.. you showup again. This kind of sensor is created fo... moreAn action cam or drone maybe
                                      But on real ca

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