New CEO

[Kolor-Pikker]

Mind what a 35mm full frame DSLR did cost 5 years ago and what you pay nowadays. Full frame 6x6 could come true somewhen.

I bought the 5D2 6 years ago for $3,700 or thereabouts, when full frame could finally be purchased for a somewhat reasonable price, instead of the roughly $7~8k commanded by DSLRs with a single digit in the model number. Today you can get a Sony a7 for $1,300, or 2.8x less, though to be fair it's not full-size DSLR, which would bring the price closer to half. Although even if you cut the prices of sensors in half, you still end up with half a princely sum.

Let's not forget Pentax as they went 'Oh by the way' with the Z

I bit that bait, it was a biggun.

based on its unique positioning and strength in its core product proposition.

Which is... the H system? Despite being their flagship camera, the H5D somehow doesn't seem like a "core" product and I'm not sure why.

 

[torger]

Sounds like they will stick to the development of further CFV solutions to me.
The rectangular backs (apart from CFV I and II) always distracted me as well. Hope they could bring something like a 4,5x4x5 sensor in the near future, though 5,5x5,5 would be the best but I don´t think that we will see that pretty soon. However, sensors are becoming cheaper every year. Mind what a 35mm full frame DSLR did cost 5 years ago and what you pay nowadays. Full frame 6x6 could come true somewhen.

I think that Hasselblad has very little chance to affect sensor designs unfortunately, at least CMOS coming out from Sony. The one that sells the most units will have the most power to affect design, and I guess that would be Pentax.

I guess CCDs have a higher degree of customization possibility (easier to make) but even then Hassy has always used standard sensors that anyone can buy. Phase One with their past higher sales volumes seems to be in a better position to get unique sensors as shown with their collaboration with Dalsa. The H4D-60 came out when Phase One's period of exclusivity of that sensor expired. I guess the IQ260 variant is a Phase One exclusive.

CCD is dead though, it just don't know it yet. CMOS is the future, and with that I think the flexibility of small or large customizations will be greatly reduced as CMOS needs more volume, ie work for many manufacturers, to work business-wise. Hopefully I'm wrong though, maybe it's easy to make a custom size?

I've heard that Hassy is/was interested in getting a 49x37mm CMOS from Sony as some optics in the H system is optimized for that format but they wouldn't listen. On the other hand this is only the first CMOS sensor for MF, and then 44x33mm was surely the safest bet to test the market.

 

[Chris Giles]

I fully expect to see a larger CMOS chip in the very near future.

 

[torger]

I fully expect to see a larger CMOS chip in the very near future.

Indeed, if voidshatter's source is truthful, Phase One already have a 120 megapixel 54x41mm sensor sort of ready. If it's a Sony I doubt it will be exclusive to Phase One and then Hassy will have access to it too. But maybe Hassy will have to ditch their 49x37mm format, we'll see.

 

[tjv]

I'd like to know more about the source. Looking at spec sheets though, and considering I'm a tech camera shooter, I'd rather see Hasselblad tap into Leica's chip design and the very thin cover glass that is reported to have better performance for tech camera movements, etc. At least that would give them a point of difference.

 

[Chris Giles]

I certainly see that as one of the ways Hassy and Phase can get a better USP (different sized sensor).

Currently the same sensor in three bodies? Not that great for business I wouldn't of thought. But that's pure speculation. Last time I checked, I was a full time wedding photographer, not someone on the board of Phase

 

[Kolor-Pikker]

Indeed, if voidshatter's source is truthful, Phase One already have a 120 megapixel 54x41mm sensor sort of ready.

"Sort of" in that it's claimed to have ridiculous shading problems with just about any lens attached... drop that down to somewhere in the 60-70mp range and it'll still knock people's socks off and actually be usable at the same time. A bigger sensor doesn't necessarily need more pixels.

 

[torger]

"Sort of" in that it's claimed to have ridiculous shading problems with just about any lens attached... drop that down to somewhere in the 60-70mp range and it'll still knock people's socks off and actually be usable at the same time. A bigger sensor doesn't necessarily need more pixels.

I never did the calculation, but now I did, 120 megapixels in 54x41mm would be ~4.3um pixel pitch, the current 50 megapixel has 5.3um, and the 36 megapixel 135 cameras has 4.9um. The smaller pixel pitch the more problems with pixel vignetting and crosstalk. Scaling up the current 44x33 sensor to full-frame with the same pixel pitch you would get 76 megapixels.

Looking at it this way it sounds more like that rumour is about a concept sensor that never was intended to get into a real product.