CMOS vs CCD

malcolm man

malcolm man

Active member
What's the difference? I was reading how they effect the cameras sensitivity and such. Obviously it has an impact on how it records. Is one better than the other?

As of now I have a very vague understanding:

1. CCD is a type of chip

2. CMOS is a type of circut that produces less heat?

Anyway, I'd like expand my knowledge in this area if you know of any articles or threads.

Thanks.
 
I've got an article planned to address this, probably be posted in a few weeks.

Basically they're two different types of sensors. As implemented in today's camcorders CCD is a lot more sensitive, CMOS shows great performance in bright light but gets a lot noisier in lower light conditions, CCDs can have vertical smear and CMOS is immune to that, but CMOS (when using a "rolling shutter") has all sorts of image artifacts including wobble, skew/shear, and partial frame exposure when shooting things like lightning or flash photography. Using a "global shutter" would eliminate these concerns, but no low-cost camcorder that I know of uses a global shutter.

Dalsa published some good CMOS vs. CCD articles. CMOS and CCD, as used for sensors, have both been around for decades. Early development showed more promise for CCD so people quit developing CMOS, but in recent years CMOS imaging technology has gained quite a lot of interest and has largely caught up to CCD technology for use as a sensor.
 
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