On Feb 12, 2004, at 1:44 PM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>
> Has anyone but me noticed that the sensor is APS sized (multiplier
> 1.44)? This means that the sensor is larger than the Canond 10D
> (multiplier 1.6) but smaller than the Canon 1D Mark II just announced
> (multiplier 1.3). So, is this a Canon 10D competitor at $1500 or
> something between the 10D and 1D Mark II at perhaps $3000?
>
> Just to complete the picture this sensor has about 70% more area than
> the 4/3 sensor on the E-1.
>
I imagine that Minolta has probably also bought the 6MP sensor from
Sony that Pentax uses in the *ist, Nikon in the D100 and D70,
especially since Minolta also uses Sony chips in their other cameras.
That chip uses a 1.5 multiplier. It is frequently called APS sized, but
isn't exactly. Nikon calls it DX and interestingly has become a an
informal standard size for the chips made by them for their other
cameras, and by Fuji in their S2/S3 pro. So it is not just a Sony
phenomenon.
I think chip area comparisons are a little misleading when their
aspects are different. A 4x3 aspect's reduced area compared to 2x3
aspect if they both have a similar vertical dimension may be
meaningless for someone who composes more compactly and would crop the
horizontal to 8x10 anyway. Sort of like someone getting excited over
6x9 instead of 6X8 on 120 film. Not a big deal.
That aside, the "APS" sensor is some bigger than the 4x3 regardless of
aspect and it becomes important as MP counts go up. Small pixels, at
least now, are noisier than large ones which is probably why the E-1 is
5MP when that is such a bad marketing position. It is very likely, I
think, that 8MP is going to be the new middle chip. I will not be
surprised that the 10D replacement will get the new chip in the EOS 1D
II without the speed and the D100 replacement will get the new 8MP that
will probably be in the new D2X. What will the E-1 get to compete with?
The same 6MP the sub $1000 entry cameras have? Or more and risk really
bad noise comparisons with the competition which has physically larger
pixels?
Winsor
Long Beach, California
USA
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