Cooled cameras

[QuickHitRecord]

I have done a lot of work with a particular thermal imaging company and I'm familiar with the concept of an actively cooled sensor. I never thought that this kind of technology could be applied to consumer cameras, but take a look at this site: http://www.centralds.net/cam/

Does this kind of tech have the potential to make any camera into an amazing low light camera?

 

[NorBro]

On a related note, BM's big URSA was so heavy because it was liquid-cooled (refrigeration cooling) and I thought it was incredibly clean at its native ISO of 400.

 

[Peter C.]

Neat. Didn't know such a product existed or that the temperature of the sensor effected noise. Practically speaking the product is very expensive, and seems to geared to help long exposures might not be useful for normal video applications.

 

[filmguy123]

Very interesting in theory. However, I do wonder if the benefits of cooling will be superseded first by other breakthroughs (such as organic sensor tech).

In computing, extreme liquid cooling has always netted performance benefits, but they often pale in comparison to the benefits offered via a die shrink. There's a point of diminishing returns. It may stand to reason that the disadvantages of adding a more robust cooling solution to a sensor may be outweighed by other improvements that push low light performance past where most users practically need them anyway (we are nearing that point already).

That said, I'm speaking over my pay grade and merely pontificating. Perhaps Mitch with his closer ties to the camera engineering teams could shed more light on this?

 

[QuickHitRecord]

Yeah, I have no idea if this would be practical for video. I didn't know that BM already did something like this with the original Ursa (which explains its size). This is a new idea to me. By this reasoning, wouldn't high ISO performance generally improve when shooting outdoors in colder climates and suffer in hot climates?

 

[NorBro]

By the general reasoning and purpose of keeping electronics cooler, I think it would since a hotter climate would make that more difficult.

 

[DLD]

 

[ahalpert]

Here's a graph of sensor temperature vs noise from an astrophotography blog: http://www.ianmorison.com/the-use-of-dark-frames-when-using-a-dslr/



It's just the physics of electron excitement or something. I'm sure that sensor temperature will always be a relevant factor even if its importance is reduced.