Eric Fossum Ranks CMOS Image Sensor Companies

Eric Fossum writes in DPReview news forum:

"Modern CCD readout noise is equal to or worse than modern CMOS active pixel image sensors. This idea that CMOS is inferior dates to the mid 1990's. It is just not true any more. Sensitivity, noise, full well, and in fact every important metric is now resolved in favor of CMOS. Ergo, Sony investing $1B in a CMOS image sensor plant.

Now, not all CMOS is equal. Micron, Sony, ST, and Samsung make high performance CMOS image sensors. Omnivision, Magnachip, Kodak (IBM), Cypress, Foveon and others are currently 2nd tier in performance. Obviously Canon is making good CMOS image sensors but at a much higher price and a much lower level of sophistication. Pixel sizes less than 3 um are much harder to make work well than larger pixels so I don't count Canon in the top tier.

kind regards,
Eric"