Overview:
Digital SLR cameras have improved drastically in performance over the past year alone, with 8-megapixel cameras now commonplace and at reasonable cost. That said, all such cameras remain constrained by a well-defined optical format and lens design base, the physical geometry of the camera and of course cost. Add to that the exponential cost associated with scaling CMOS sensors to reach the size of 35-mm film, and therein lies a problem: camera manufacturers are forced into a position where they have to trade resolution for the noise associated with shrinking pixel size.
The Sigma SD14 digital SLR tackles this problem by incorporating the Foveon X3 14.1 Mpixel image sensor. X3 image sensors have three layers of vertically stacked pixels. The layers of pixels are embedded in silicon to take advantage of the fact that red, green, and blue light penetrate silicon to different depths, allowing it to show full color at every point on the captured image, versus the interpolation of RGB pixels in a typical array. This allows better use of available space and gives X3 images more 'pop' and vibrancy. For more on the technology, visit www.foveon.com.
While the sensor is critical, so are the electronics behind it, as the sensor itself requires high-speed data converters to handle the raw 12-bit data, large amounts of memory to store the acquired images, lots of digital signal processing horsepower to perform the required back-end processing and a highly integrated controller to perform the necessary JPEG conversion and system control functions.
Use this OnDemand seminar to find out:
- How the Foveon X3 sensor works its magic
- What components, particularly on the DSP end, Sigma's designers turned to in order to get the processing, storage and control accomplished.
- How the camera squeezed so much processing into such a small space
- And much more!
Who should attend:
Designers and users of digital imaging sensors and systems.
Presenter:
Patrick Mannion
Patrick Mannion is Editor-in-Chief of TechOnline (www.techonline.com) and can be contacted at pmannion@cmp.com.
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