There have been a number of discussions about the tradeoff between
pixel area and noise, the basic rule being the larger the pixel the
less the noise.
In <http://luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/olympus-e1.shtml>,
under "Inside the 4/3 system", the claim is made that Olympus' choice
of less than a full-frame (35mm) sensor will corner the four thirds
system. The problem is that the argument assumes that photographic
CCD sensors and amplifiers are already fully developed, which isn't
true just yet. Current sensors are limited by self-noise, and so the
area-noise tradeoff will improve as semiconductor technology
improves. When sensors are limited by photon noise, then and only
then is further improvement impossible. This will be a while
unfolding.
Joe Gwinn
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