richardman
Well-known member
There are two ways for the price of a sensor to come down: 1) the demand is so high that they can make it up in volume (only if it actually MAKES money, don't laugh, this is in contrast with the current "market-leader at all cost, including losses" business model), 2) the manufacturer cost comes down because of better technology or other advancements.I remember the first commercial use Kodak digital camera was priced at $20K if my memory serves right. Its' resolution was about 1MB. So I cross my fingers that I will see a 6x6 format digital back with accepting price in my life (I will be at 60 in three years).
..
So never says never, but there is not enough demand for the high cost to come down.
As for lower manufacturing cost, that won't happen either. Basically, when the sensor (wafer) gets bigger, the prices do not come down because they are pretty much at the limit of their yield. Imagine they have on average 1 defect per 1 square millimeter (I have no idea what the actual numbers are), that figure will not change much in the future. The larger the sensor, the larger number of average defects. They can mask out the effect of some bad bits, but again, that figure will not change much in the future.