> -----Original Message----- > From: Jon Glass [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > (snip) > ..... But this is fascinating > information. :-) Thanks. >
I should point out that it's my speculation, not information from any source. It's my amalgam of two existing concepts. One concept is that more than one CCD can form an imaging sensor array. This has been implemented in digi sensors for large format cameras. The small amount of missing picture data where the two sensors adjoin is synthesised by interpolation. My feeling is that 35mm sized cameras would be too small for this process to have acceptable quality. However, the Schott concepts that Rob pointed out would permit two or more sensors to be connected to the focal plane by tapered fibre bundles, so there would be no gaps regardless of how far apart the separate sensors might be. The other concept I considered is that the difficulty of producing imaging chips rises exponentially with area, as does their cost. So we find that a chip that is, say, 4 times larger than another will be much more than 4 times costlier. IIRC the typical APS sized 6 MP chip alone often costs as much or more than an entire 6 MP point and shoot camera with a 2/3 format chip. Unless the cost of big chips can be reigned in the Schott solution, implemented as I speculate, could have better economy regards, Anthony Farr
