Interesting info about d90 sensor resize

B

bwwd

Veteran
http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/NikD90MovieOP.html

This makes me wonder, so why they dont make sensor where pixels are far from each other if d90 is just skipping pixels it should be basically the same,make sensor from as many pixels to achieve 1080p resolution and place them on 24mm x 15mm sensor with distance from each other like lets say non skipped pixels are on d90 sensor.
This is doable if nikon can just skip pixels to"resize" from over 4k resolution to 720p.
Instead we have something completely different and camera manufacturers are making all those silly 8 megapixel cameras for cellphones where sensor size is smaller than in analog videocams.
 
To save processing power if 4k is too much for camera processor and make more cameras with larger sensors finally.
Is it really that important how far from each other are pixels on sensor ,im not expert but i doubt that.Maybe they should start to build bigger sensors with this technique and stop this 10 megapixels nonsense for cellphones.
 
But placing the pixels further apart gives the exact same result as only reading some on a denser chip, so no real benefit while severely limiting the stills performance. I don't see the point.
 
Remember that the sensor is exposed during movie mode, that it is the sensor that 'shutters' and there is no mechanical shutter, and that sensor heat is a real problem. How this heat problem is approached might explain which sites are live and which are not - in short, how the movie mode has been formulated. I think the solution to resolution will finally be a robust and fast mechanical shutter, but that will cost a pretty penny.

edit: and it will shift the focus from still photogaphy to motion capture.
 
Last edited:
But i talking about camera for films not for 4k stills.If nikon does that right now maybe it would be cheaper to manufaeture such sensor with limited amount of pixels for 1080p,not for 4k stills.
Does canon 5D ii does the same thing and skips pixels when downsizing to 1080 ?
 
no, it would most likely not be cheaper. and the reason they don't do full res for video is exactly because they are still cameras. it's not very hard to capture the full 4k on video if that's the purpose. the red one does it, as does the gh1 even though it scales it down to 1080p. the 5d skips just like the d90.
 
damonb said:
edit: and it will shift the focus from still photogaphy to motion capture.
Click to expand...
you don't need many pixels to do motion capture. a global shutter is necessary though. any cheap ccd dv camera should do fine.

(yeah, i know what you meant, but motion capture actually means attaching little dots to people and tracking their movement) ;-)
 
d90 is not red one and how do you know that its easy for d90 to grab 4k video ? You work on their sensors ? Or you just guessing because red one do it so d90 should do it easily too ?:huh:
 
bwwd said:
d90 is not red one and how do you know that its easy for d90 to grab 4k video?
Click to expand...
duh, that's exactly my point. the d90 doesn't do 4k video because it's a stills camera, unlike the red one which has no problem doing 4k since that's what it was built to do. how can you possibly suggest that they replace the sensor in a stills camera with one that doesn't take stills? as for how i know things if you had done your homework you should've known that i know my ****. pay attention and you might learn something.
 
I never suggested replacing any sensor to not make stills anymore (thats some very heavy between lines reading)but making sensors with pixels far from each other to save processing power.
But GH1 has 4/3 sensor so size of the sensor is problem here thats why panasonic didnt built gh1 with full frame sensor ?
I know that GH1 was built as camcorder but looks like DSLR.
 
icon_cry.gif
 
I don't see the point of making a sensor with small pixels spread over a large area.

It would make sense if the suggestion was to fill the area with larger pixels.
 
sort of, even though i maintain that a 2k sensor in an slr would be a very stupid idea since it wouldn't really take stills anymore. i still don't see what's wrong with a lot of pixels over a large area or what the advantage of less pixels would be. it's a mistake to think that more pixels automatically means more expensive sensors or more heat problems or whatever. it's perfectly possible to build an extremely expensive native 1080p sensor that overheats, just as it's possible to build a fairly cheap (relatively) 4k one that doesn't.
 
Were you suggesting Nikon make a dedicated video camera with the same size sensor with less/larger pixels? Because I agree, they could become a serious competitor in the prosumer video market.
 
Bizzare as this debate was, it does point to an issue Nikon must surely confront at some stage: when are the functions - including the sensor type and operation - of the dslr going to move toward better accomodating motion capture even at the expense of still imaging? I do understand that many, many people want a dedicated dslr, and many do not care for motion capture. But at the journalistic end of town, maybe video will become more important than still images. Maybe video is already more important. News media seem hell-bent on a future where major newspapers are no longer in print form. If the D3 equivalent of the future is a device mainly used for motion capture to service cable and internet, what would the rest of the dslr range look like?
 
I never wrote that it has to be nikon to do that and pixels cant be larger ,besides pixels dont become larger on d90 when they skipping non used ones.
And who cares about stills on films forums ,i started this thread with films in mind and never said that nikon or any other company which produce cameras(non camcorders) should do that,i was just asking can anyone do that but it looks like everything is easy ,build 4k sensor and grab raws from it for film but its weird that we dont have it anywhere besides red one and only for rent cams.If its easy.
4K sensor is pointless if size is too smal to get shallow dof,so what if its 4k,it wont be more filmic than any other progressive cams with deep dof.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top