Oly and their partners have made it clear (I saw it in an official
release, honest!) that the designation '4/3' does not refer to a
dimension in inches, including not to the old vidicon tube designations,
but to an aspect ratio. Unfortunately, it looked like common sensor chip
designations based on the vidicon system (which are not the dimensions
of the active area, which is much smaller) and people started to put the
double quote symbol for inches after it. The web being the way it is,
the idea is unkillable. Somebody just posted the actual sensor
dimensions on the list
Moose
Jan Steinman wrote:
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxx>
Andrew and Tom have apparenently misintepreted the 4/3 in the Olydak
"4/3 system" as 4/3" (inch) and as meaning the size of the diagonal of
the sensor.
In the 4/3 system, 4/3 is the aspect ratio of the sensor, ie; ratio of
width and height...
I don't think this is correct. I recall reading somewhere that the fractional system of
identifying sensors goes back to some obscure video tube dimension, and that it didn't
directly measure any "real" solid state dimension.
But it definitely has to do with dimensions, NOT ratios. Otherwise, one could not design
a lens for a "4/3" sensor, and have the same crop with different sensors.
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