A few days ago Sony announced 12.47MP IMX021 sensor with 28.4mm diagonal, which translates to 5.49um pixel. At 10.39fps speed the sensor is quite fast for a DSLR sensor.
Sony touts 12b column-parallel ADC, which allows "dual noise cancelling technology realizing high-precision noise reduction across both analog and digital circuits". However, no sensor noise numbers are released.
IMX021 production will be carried out at Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corporation's Kumamoto Technology Center.
There are several rumors over the NET about NIKON D300 sensor. Some say it is actually this SONY sensor. The main problem is that SONY announced 12bit conversion while NIKON D300 is 14bits?
ReplyDeleteHard to tell. From Nikon's PR it looks like it uses external 14b ADC, a part of its "EXPEED" image processing system: "The D300 EXPEED system features 14-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion with 16-bit image processing...".
ReplyDeleteSony proudly announces that it uses on-chip column-parallel ADCs.
To me this clearly says the two sensors are different.
What can be is that Sony made a customized sensor version for Nikon with no on-chip ADCs. Then Nikon can connect the same sensor with its own ADC via analog interface. As a matter of fact, many DSLR sensors do not have integrated ADC and rely on external chips instead.