October 06, 2003
Megapixels Multiplied
In its early days, start-up Foveon focussed on high-end digital camera technology based on color-separating prisms. The Eureka moment came they realized that silicon can make for a simpler and much more manufacturable - and therefore inexpensive - color separator.
Conventional digital imaging sensors utilize one layer of silicon photodetectors. Every third pixel senses red, blue or green, and the camera interpolates between those pixels.
Foveon's X3 technology, in contrast, makes use of the fact that red, blue and geeen light penetrate silicon to different depths.
By embedding three layers of photodetectors in the silicon, X3 image sensors capture all three colors at each "pixel", rendering interpolation unnecessary, and resulting in increased sharpness, better color detail and resistance to color artifacts. A 3.4-MP X3 sensor supplies the equivalent of 10-MP of data.
A further aspect of X3 technology is that it enables recording of both video and still images without compromising the image quality for either.
Popular Science notes that the 3.5-MP Sigma SD9 SLR (which debuted the Foveon) bests the 6-MP Canon D60 and Nikon D100 in sharpness and other characteristics, at half the cost. This month's Consumer Reports notes that the SD9 produced images better than those from 5-MP cameras it tested, adding that the "Foveon sensor shows promise for the mainstream."
Is there an X3-based camera in your future? Stay tuned.
I'm curious: does it have the depth-of-field advantages of larger chips (e.g., the full-frame 35mm CCDs), or is it basically equivalent to the same-size "regular" CCD in this regard?
Posted by Craig at October 6, 2003 12:04 AMYes, the chip offers a lot of promise. The reviews shows the chip besting other CCD or CMOS chips of higher resolution. Unfortunately, Sigma is the only company that's using the chip, and the resulting camera SD9 is a decent camera, but doesn't come close to either Canon 10D or Nikon 100D in terms of quality and useability. I think that would change if one of the major camera manufacturers (Canon or Nikon) uses the chip in their cameras, but nothing seems to be immiment at this point. So, it's an interesting technology that remains a question mark.
Posted by Ken at October 6, 2003 12:24 AMAnother plus is that X3 is CMOS technology, which requires less supporting electronics and less power than CCDs.
I'd love to see this technology in one of the majors. According to one interview, (Forbes, "5 Chips That Will Change Your Life"), "Foveon expects the X3 chip...to show up in digital cameras aimed at consumers by the end of 2003." And in August they appointed a new CEO with a mandate to do just that.
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