I expect sensors to become larger as pixel count increases because you begin to run into immutable laws of physics.
At 12:37 AM 9/27/03 -0400, you wrote:
On Fri, 26 Sep 2003, J. C. O'Connell wrote:
> Ever heard of a thing called competition?
Nice sarcasm.
> Pentax will probably HAVE TO follow the nikon/canon model of aps then > full size digital sensors in SLRs to stay competitive.
So... how many Nikon and Canon DSLRs are there with a full frame sensor? I can only think of one, the Canon 1Ds, though Kodak makes one based on a Nikon body. Those sell for about 3 times the price of the D100/10D/*istD, so I'm not sure why Pentax will need to offer a similar camera to compete.
************************************************ this whole SLR digital imaging thing is still NEW. That's why we are now only seeing the trickle of full frame sensors coming out. Prices will fall. Where the megapixel race ends up at remains to be seen, but it is pretty silly to be using lenses designed for 44mm image circles & then only using 70% of that and hence throwing away %50 of the formed image area.
As a large format shooter who knows what high resolution is and means, I do not expect the pixel count to stop at 6MP. In order to go higher the sensors need to get bigger, hence the long term pressure for full frame. *********************************************
> Eventually, the only way to effectively increase pixel count will be to > make sensor larger. Otherwise the pixels get too small and become > insensitive/noisy...
At one point in time, it seemed that the only way to make computers more powerful was to radically increase the size. But, strangely enough, they keep getting smaller and more powerful. I'd be surprised if the light-gathering/processing abilities of current sensors doesn't improve dramatically in the future without the need to go with larger sensors.
chris *********************************************** Larger sensors make sense in the context that the lenses are already forming a larger image. Even if the quality of small pixels can be increased, the larger sensor will always be able to use them, and hence higher overall resolution... ************************************************** JCO
I drink to make other people interesting.
-- George Jean Nathan
