Panasonic Unveils 35MP Organic Super35 CMOS Sensor with Global Shutter and Great Dynamic Range

The organic sensor has reached a mythical status.

In fact, 8 year after the joint Panasonic and Fujifilm announcement, where the organic sensor was first unveiled to the masses with great optimism and claims of glorious performances and dynamic range, we haven’t seen anything coming to the market, expect for a camcorder prototype shown by Panasonic back in 2019.

Probably like many of you, I just stopped hoping that such a sensor would ever see the light of the day.

And yet, today we have to add another chapter to the organic sensor novel.

In fact, Panasonic has just announced the first 4k/8K Super35 global shutter organic CMOS sensor during the “4th 4K / 8K Video Technology Exhibition”

Here are Panasonic’s claims (google translated):

  • replaces the silicon photodiode that has been used as the light receiving part of the conventional CMOS sensor with an organic thin film that has a larger light absorption coefficient
  • wide dynamic range and global shutter
  • In a general back-illuminated CMOS sensor, if a high resolution and a wide dynamic range are realized, a global shutter cannot be installed, and if a global shutter is installed, the resolution and the dynamic range are reduced, which is a trade-off
  • The organic CMOS sensor has a dynamic range four times that of a general CMOS sensor
  • the global shutter also adjusts the voltage applied to the organic thin film to control the photoelectric conversion efficiency
  • technological development for practical use is making great progress
  • color reproducibility is high
  • As a next-generation technology for organic CMOS sensors, there is an ultra-WDR technology in which two sensitivity detection cells, a high-sensitivity cell and a high-saturation cell, are provided in one pixel.
  • With this, the dynamic range can be 100 times that of an organic CMOS sensor and 400 times that of a general CMOS sensor.

Well, we knew about all the dynamic range claims and the global shutter already. Today we got a bit more insights on how it works and especially one sentence revived my hopes after all these years:

technological development for practical use is making great progress

So let’s hope that we will soon see the first cameras with such a sensor and that they were able to sort out the main problems with this sensor: heat generation and battery drain.

Will this be the sensor of the Fujifilm X-H2?

I don’t know, but I don’t think so.

Maybe it will initially find its way into larger bodies of camcorders, which can handle heat generation better. At a later stage maybe also mirrorless cameras will feature this sensor.

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The Organic Sensor Novel – A Summary:

  • June 2013: Fujifilm and Panasonic announced the organic sensor development
  • December 2014: Our sources told us here, that there is a crucial problem to be solved with the organic sensor: heat generation (and battery drain)
  • December 2014: Top Fujifilm Managers confirmed, that the organic sensor is “still well ahead of us.”
  • October 2015: 43rumors broke the rumor here, that it will still take a 2 or 3 years before the organic sensor will be ready for mass production.
  • February 2016: Panasonic announced that, along with Fujifilm, they are developing an organic sensor with global shutter and impressive 123dB (!!!) dynamic range.
  • February 2016: Fujifilm management says: “We don’t have any specific plans of incorporating an organic sensor into our products at the moment, but yes we are observing the progress of this technology. As of today, there would be No benefits to using an organic sensor. Our X-Trans III sensor is superior to the currently available organic sensor.”
  • February 2017: Panasonic announces the world’s first organic CMOS image sensor with electrically controllable near-infrared light sensitivity. However, unlike in previous press-releases, this time Fujifilm isn’t mentioned.
  • February 2017: Fujifilm Announces Development of World’s fastest Organic CMOS Circuit For Multi-bit flexible Temperature Sensor
  • August 2017: Development of Wide Dynamic Range and Global Shutter Technology for Organic Photoconductive Film Image Sensor (Panasonic)
  • Febraury 2018: Panasonic Announces 8K 36 Megapixel Global Shutter Organic Sensor… and Time To Stop Sony’s Sensor Hegemony
  • October 2018: Panasonic Says Organic Sensor Cooperation with Fujifilm Continues. Mass Production Will Take a Bit more Time
  • September 2019: Panasonic shows first Camcorder featuring 8K organic sensor

via digicame-info via monoist

Mirrorless Market Share 2020: The Rise of Canon (+6%) Affects Sony (-7%), Fujifilm Stable Third at +5% from Nikon

A couple of days ago we have share the market share for the entire digital camera market and we saw that Fujifilm is 4th. We also saw that only Fujifilm, Sony and Canon where able to gain some market share.

Now SonyAlphaRumors spotted a Financial Times article, where we can see the data for mirrorless cameras market share in 2020.

As usual, the data is provided by Techno System Research, a major marketing research company located in Japan.

We can see that, just as in 2019, Fujifilm is third in the mirrorless camera market share, followed by Olympus, Nikon and Panasonic.

  • Sony: about 35%
  • Canon: about 30%
  • Fujifilm: about 12%
  • Nikon: about 7%

Compared to 2019:

Fujifilm is substantially stable with about the same market share of 2019 and still 5% ahead of Nikon.

Sony lost most in terms of market share (-7%). The big winner is Canon, who gained about 6%.

Nikon is on the 4th position.

The dead Olympus has still more market share than Panasonic, who went all-in with full frame mirrorless.

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Digital Camera Market Share 2019: Canon is King, Fujifilm Stable 4th, Nikon is Falling, Olympus is Out

You might remember, how back in 2019 we reported Techno System Research data (a major marketing research company located in Japan) regarding the global mirrorless camera market share. We saw that Fujifilm was on an impressive 3rd position, very close to Canon. Check it out here.

Now Techno System Research has published the data regarding the digital camera market share (hence DSLR and Mirrorless combined). The data takes into account the 14.8 million cameras sold last year (2019).

As to expect, the ranking changes quite a bit compared to the mirrorless only data.

  • Canon: 45,4% (+2.4%)
  • Sony: 20.2% (+0.9%)
  • Nikon: 18.6% (-1.6%)
  • Fujifilm: 4.7% (-0.4%)
  • Panasonic: 4.7% (0.0%)

Nikon lost its Nr.2 position and sees the biggest market share loss of the top 5 companies. Olympus is out of the ranking, replaced on the 5th position by Panasonic. Sony dominates mirrorless, but DSLR sales are still high and keep Canon first.

And Fujifilm?

Well, Fujifilm stayed rather stable on the 4th position, with a 0.4% market share decrease. Not sure if we should rejoice, because they found their safe niche, or worry that they didn’t gain market share.

Also interesting to note: the digital camera market saw a year-to-year decrease of about 20% in 2019 and also in 2018.

  • read here – Nikkei: “Japanese Camera Industry Strangles Itself. 88% Decline in 10 Years. On the Brink of Extinction, Unless…”
  • read here – Olympus Drops its Camera Business: Farewell to My First Mirrorless Love, and Could Oly-Shooters Find a New Love in Fujifilm (Like Me)?

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via Nikkei via digicame-info via digitalcameraworld

Nikkei: “Japanese Camera Industry Strangles Itself. 88% Decline in 10 Years. On the Brink of Extinction, Unless…”

Triggered by recent failure of the Olympus imaging division (which FujiRumors dedicated an own – and very personal – article here), Nikkei deputy editor Masamichi Hoshi has published a rather dark overview over the current camera market situation and an even darker forecast.

The article starts by taking into account two rather obvious reasons, why the camera industry struggles, and that surely Japanese camera makers are not responsible for:

  • the rise of smartphones
  • COVID-19 (which lead to only 2.63 million shipments during the first four months of this year, down 44% from the same period last year)

The numbers of the decline are dramatic:

  • 2010: a total of 121 million digital cameras shipped
  • 2019: a total of 15 million digital cameras shipped
  • … this means there was an almost 88% decrease in 10 years only!
  • 2020: a total of 2.63 million digital cameras shipped in the first 4 months

A special mention in regards of struggling companies goes to Nikon, which has photography as a core business (unlike Fujifilm), but also all other brands are having hard times.

Nikon’s imaging unit, which has focused on digital cameras, finished the fiscal year that ended in March with an operating loss of 17.1 billion yen ($158.7 million), down from a profit of 22 billion yen the previous year. In November, the unit drafted a rebuilding plan focused on the “pro-hobby class,” which consumes 3 million interchangeable lenses per year. It aims to cut 50 billion yen from its fiscal 2019 operating costs by the end of fiscal 2022. The cuts will come from a reorganization of production plants, a narrowing of products and a personnel reduction.

The digital camera operations of companies like Ricoh and Panasonic also continue to struggle. The operating profit at Canon’s imaging system units fell by 48.2 billion yen in the year through December, a 62% drop the previous year.

But beyond smartphones and COVID-19, there is a third reason highlighted by Masamichi Hoshi, which is the one we want to focus on here today: excessive competition.

Here is what Masamichi Hoshi writes on Nikkei:

** CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of the Article **

Sensor Size Sweet Spot is APS-C and not Full Frame, Claim These Industry Insiders

The Ideal Sensor Size

Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s stir up the spirits, and for one more glorious time, jump fully into the sensor size debate.

The trigger?

And article by DL Cade form Petapixel, who had a talk with Richard Butler (DPR) and Bill Claff (Photons to Photos), about:

  • Why Full Frame is perceived as the “serious” format
  • What is the “ideal” sensor size

The first can be answered with the popularity of 35mm in the film era.

But in modern digital times, is full frame really the sweet spot? DL Cade, Richard and Bill answer the following in this article:

DL Cade goes for APS-C:

“I still believe there is a best sensor for “most people” and that this sensor is not full-frame. This sensor is APS-C. […] the performance to size to cost ratio falls into a sweet spot that neither Micro Four Thirds nor full-frame can match.

take the Fuji X-T3, which is a bit closer in price and weight to the a7 III, selling for only $500 less and weighing only 0.25lbs less. In the video department, the Fuji can already record 4K/60p 4:2:0 10-bit internally; Sony can’t even do that over HDMI. And it, too, shoots at a faster 11fps in 14-bit RAW, can capture up to 30fps electronically with an additional 1.25x crop, and benefits from a large selection of high-quality, compact lenses designed for APS-C.”

Richard Butler says:

** CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of the Article **