Sony IMX174 CMOS sensor: 16mm-size, global-shutter, 12 f-stops, 164.5 FPS

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combatentropy

Veteran
Last month Sony announced a new CMOS image sensor. It may mean nothing to some of you, because it's just a sensor. There's no camera with it unless you want an industrial camera in a box from Point Grey or are willing to be the next Ikonoskop. Nevertheless the specs are impressive, particularly its global shutter, and here's to hoping a proper prosumer camera will come out this year or next with decent dynamic range, frame rates, the ability to use interchangeable 16mm lenses, and at long last (again) global shutter.

Resolution: 1936 x 1200
Size: 11.34 x 7.13 mm (11.25 x 6.33 when cropped to 1920 x 1080). By comparison, 16mm is 10.26 x 7.49.
Frame rate: 164.5
Dynamic range: 12 F-stops (73 dB)
Shutter: Global


Links:

- Sony industrial site
- Point Grey's info
 
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Point Grey may be only making a camera that uses the monochrome, but Sony offers it in color. If you just read the top of the Sony site, it says, "Black-and-White and Color." But really you need to go all the way to the bottom for the best quote, "Please feel the excellence of the IMX174LLJ/LQJ."
 
I can't wait to feel the excellence but felt insulted after reading the name of the last person in the photo.
 
Eh, only 1080p. Maybe if they did a global-shutter 4K 1-inch sensor with at least 12 stops of dynamic range (they might get even more with dual readout of the sensor).
 
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For those wanting global shutter, it may be the CMOS sensor with the most DR right now. But I'm way more excited about the sCMOS v2 that will be released next week (the v1 is the sensor in the BMC).
 
Samuel H said:
For those wanting global shutter, it may be the CMOS sensor with the most DR right now. But I'm way more excited about the sCMOS v2 that will be released next week (the v1 is the sensor in the BMC).
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I saw a notice of that last week. Care to speculate on the new sensor's specs? Larger size? More pixels? Greater dynamic range, particularly with a global shutter?
 
Tzedekh said:
I saw a notice of that last week. Care to speculate on the new sensor's specs? Larger size? More pixels? Greater dynamic range, particularly with a global shutter?
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I have absolutely no idea what it may bring to the table. I'm hoping bigger size (APS-C would be killer), but I guess better fps/DR/resolution are the most likely improvements. And maybe just one of those three. We'll see, soon enough...
 
Is it definitely going to be only a rolling shutter? I noticed that you did not even speculate that global shutter might be one fo the new features.
 
It could be global shutter, there's basically no information about it so in fact it could be anything. But I don't expect that. Global shutter is bad for DR and they designed their v1 sensor with DR as their main target.
 
The spec that changed the most is quantum efficiency, from 52% to 80%. The Sony is also high, 76%. From what I've read, the average has been around 50%. So now we have two sensors with a huge jump in quantum efficiency. But I don't know how important that is. For the Sony, it has about a stop better dynamic range than global shutter sensors of similar size. For the sCMOS sensor, it does almost nothing. I mean, its sensor from last year differs by just a few decibels but actually has global shutter.
 
I'm not sure, but I think QE measures how many electrons you get from every photon, and an increase of 50% (52 to 80) should mean you get half-a-stop better lowlight capabilities. Also, readout noise from 3e- to 2e- means half a stop better DR, everything else constant.
In any case, all these are "max" values. Average QE is usually a lot lower, and the details of how it is distributed are important.

The global shutter was never activated in the BM cameras. It does have pretty nasty side-effects: slower max fps (not a problem here, BM never went above 30 fps anyway) and increased readout noise, which means a lot less DR. The flier just never details them.
 
Samuel H said:
It could be global shutter, there's basically no information about it so in fact it could be anything. But I don't expect that. Global shutter is bad for DR and they designed their v1 sensor with DR as their main target.
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I'm not certain that that dynamic range takes a very big hit in global-shutter mode, at least going by the specs published by PCO for its pco.edge camera, which uses the same sensor used in the BMCC, the CIS2051. To calculate the theoretical dynamic range in dB, PCO uses the following formula:

DR = 20 x log(fullwell capacity ÷ median readout noise)
​


Its theoretical DR in rolling-shutter, slow-scan mode is 88.6 dB (27,000:1):

DR = 20 x log(30,000 e- ÷ 1.1 e-) = 88.6 dB
​


Its theoretical DR in global-shutter, fast-scan mode:

DR = 20 x log(30,000 e- ÷ 2.2 e-) = 82.7 dB
​


It looks as though, at least theoretically, the sensor's DR is about 6 dB -- or only one stop -- lower in global-shutter mode.
 
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Those numbers don't match the specs from the original sCMOS flyer (which stted 3e- readout noise), so no idea how they're measuring them. It's may a median vs max thing. But yes, it's a small difference, much smaller than what I've seen in other RS/GS-capable sensors.
 
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