In March last year Panasonic press released news of their new CMOS
development, a sensor that had a simplified architecture, low power
requirements and more active surface as less room was taken up by
support structures for each pixel. There is talk that this will be
useful for increasing the mp count in the very small chips in compact
cameras.
Around the same time, Olympus and Panasonic climb into bed together.
We know what Panasonic get out of it but we're a bit puzzled about
Oly's end of the deal.
Fast forward.
Olympus admits that the E-300 was designed for Live View but that the
technology but the technology required was not ready, so they
released it as an entry level DSLR. It's a bit noisy.
Olympus releases the E-330 and guess what - it has a CMOS sensor with
a simplified architecture, low power requirements (for B mode
viewing) and ain't too noisy at all.
None of this year's Panasonic compacts (I handled FX-001, TZ-1, LS-5
and FZ-7 last week) have the new chip - or at least there's nothing
in the press materials and I'm sure that they'd make a fuss about it
if it was in there.
Now I'm not Hercule bloody Poirot but even I can draw some
conclusions from that sequence of events. When asked if it's a
Panasonic chip, Olympus smile and respond - 'Can't comment on that."
AndrewF
PS - Panasonic are releasing a new Data projector. It is half the
size/weight of any I've seen before. While it does all the usual
projector stuff, it also takes an SD card directly in a slot and
seamlessly slide shows the images on it. Welcome back to the slide
night.
Very bright too. I want one. The teacher in me considers slide sets
and Powerpoint presentations on individual SD cards to be a 'good
thing.' Under us$1000.
On 19/02/2006, at 1:55 AM, Winsor Crosby wrote:
>
> No idea who made it. Sony makes CMOS. I don't think it is beyond
> Kodak to make one. They have been making them for other applications
> for some time. There are other makers out there like the Belgian Fill
> Factory. Are you saying you know that Panasonic did?
>
>
>
> Winsor
> Long Beach, California, USA
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 18, 2006, at 12:22 AM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
>
>
>> Not any more - who do you think made the C-MOS sensor for the E-330?
>> - Canon?!!
>>
>
>
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