Interview with Sandor Barna, Aptina's VP

DP Review published an interview with Sandor Barna, Aptina's VP and GM of Consumer Camera Business Unit. Confirming the company's push into the high-end and, possibly, higher-margin sensors, Sandor emphasizes the importance of the large sensor size: "The analogy between film and optical format is pretty striking. In the film days, everyone was focused on the size of the film (35mm, 120, etc.) - grain vs. sensitivity (film speed) was a tradeoff decision you made each time you bought some film. In digital, optical format [sensor size] is analogous to film size - pixel count is like the minimum grain size, with a similar sensitivity trade-off. If we applied the old film logic to digital cameras, the optical format would be on the side of the box, not the number of megapixels."