When you bought your DSLR camera, did you find that type of sensor used in the camera affected your decision?
I don’t know much about these but was looking through the specs of a couple of different digital cameras.
From what I’ve read CCD offers higher quality but higher battery consumption as well. CMOS is cheaper to manufacture but can offer similar performance to CCD in some cases.
Just curious to know if anyone has any experience comparing the 2, or if the performance is so close that it doesn’t even matter.
For consumer DSLR Canon is without question the leader in sensor design and technology, especially their full frame sensors…
Here’s a link to a Canon white paper on digital sensors that outlines the superiority of CMOS for DSLR applications… it goes into significant detail regarding the pros and cons of CCD vs CMOS…
Wow…the above paper just “measurebated” me so well that I think I’ll never be able to look at any Nikon product ever again! …nah…not really…but it sure will be interesting when full frame (35mm) equivalent DSLRs make their way down to the cheaper models from Canon and Nikon.
[quote=“plasmatron”]For consumer DSLR Canon is without question the leader in sensor design and technology, especially their full frame sensors…
Here’s a link to a Canon white paper on digital sensors that outlines the superiority of CMOS for DSLR applications… it goes into significant detail regarding the pros and cons of CCD vs CMOS…
I had to Google what “measurebating” meant … despite first impressions it surprisingly doesn’t involve Capt.Stag greased up and fondling his Nikon in a darkened room, but oddly it’s apparently meant to be some kind of pseudo-slur used by people who are against factual comparison and empirical observation as a means of data gathering… odd… perhaps I should listen to Sarah Palin more I hear she’s a big supporter of this anti-science philosophy…
Anyway, the point of the white paper I posted was to point out the cutting edge of DSLR CMOS sensor design and manufacturing… Certainly Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Pentax, etc make great cameras, and Canon’s massive market share dominance is being threatened by some really good new generation Nikon cameras… but we’re not talking cameras, we’re talking DSLR sensors and 35mm full frame CMOS sensors are the state of the art for consumer DSLR and Canon’s 1D and 5D series sensors are almost universally regarded as the best in the business…
Ah… but they already have… NT$50k will buy you a brand new box fresh Canon 5D, 35mm full sensor DSLR, and once the 5D MarkII hits the market later this month that’ll come down even more… so 50 grand, the same money as many crop frame DSLRs buys you a full frame 5D and, well FWIW I’ll let noted Nikon fan boy Ken Rockwell explain it…
[quote=“rocky raccoon”]
Lots of good info in there for sure. I just quickly looked it over and was impressed by how deep the go into the semiconductor manufacturing process.
So CCD is more expensive, and higher quality…but uses more heat. Or am I wrong about the higher quality of CCD sensors?[/quote]
AFAIK it’s an issue of CCD having a lower noise/signal ratio by virtue of it’s architecture, but once you get into the bigger sensors required to achieve better image quality, CCD’s inherent disadvantages, primarily higher power consumption and slow “refresh” speed kind of rule it out for higher level DSLR’s… It’s also more cost effective to make CMOS sensors and the signal/noise issue can be readily dealt with with noise reduction algorithms etc…
Good point. I paid about NT$60K for my 20D back in 2004, and $NT38K for my 40D last year. If I can get a 5D mark II sometime in the next 6 months for around NT$80K I’ll be very happy. Incidentally, I read somewhere that just on pre-orders alone, the 5D II won’t be on shelves until February at the earliest, even though it is supposed to be available this month (hope that makes sense - I know what I mean )
Thanks for the elaborate explanation with a little Ken Rockwell twist…and I am aware that the Canon 5D can be had for 50K these days…but I didn’t mention any brand comparison…
By the cheaper models, I meant at the entry level DSLR…if 35mm is the benchmark, then there’s a fair chance that smaller format DSLRs will eventually all be 35mm equivalent. So, in the price range of the Nikon D60 and Canon 450D is what I was referring to as “cheaper”…so, the current batch of 35mm equivalent sensors in those top cameras from Nikon and Canon ( and others) are sure to move down the product range as new and improved sensors hit the market. …
I reckon that’ll never happen… I’d hazard a guess that in 2 model generations, maybe less, that you’ll see 35mm full frame options on what will be the future 60D / D400 / A750 level semi-pro models from Canon/Nikon/Sony/etc… but they’ll likely keep a crop frame option in these models for wildlife/sports photographers who want the “range” and FPS crop frame offers…
IMO though they’ll never put full frame sensors in the entry level, 450D / D80 etc cameras… FF sensors will always be more costly to produce, and 99.9% of entry level buyers are prepared to accept the inferior image quality in favour of crop frames advantages of low cost, small physical size and convenience… Plus if the major manufacturers dropped crop frame cameras completely they’d instantly make all their crop frame only lenses obsolete…
crop frame sensors may just have been an arbitrary and compromised solution to the technological limitations of the time, but serious semi-pro photographic equipment and the ultimate image quality it offers is not everyone’s top priority, so crop frame cameras will continue to have a raison d’être for a while yet…
So it appears he’s able to control the auto focus on the fly? I haven’t checked the tech specs of that camera but the output looks good.
I regularly shoot clips using the video function on my point and shoot digital camera. The only thing that I need is a ZOOM function while shooting video on a tripod. That would really add a lot if a camera could do that while shooting video.
Maybe I’m just out of touch with DSLR technology, does that exist on a camera already?
I like that Tokyo video a lot. It’s possible he focused manually while shooting, I guess. I do that with video when filming scenes where the autofocus can’t keep up (which is just about all of them).
[quote=“urodacus”]Hey Mr Professional camera man types, “affordable” means US 200 bucks, not US 2,000.
I’ll still wait just a little while longer before I get one.[/quote]
…nah…not really…but it sure will be interesting when full frame (35mm) equivalent DSLRs make their way down to the cheaper models from Canon and Nikon.
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