What Limits a sensors......

A

A51Films

Carbonite Member
I'm just curious as to what in a camera or on the sensor, limits the camera to a max frame per second count? Like the RED has 60fps at 4k or 120fps in 2k and varicam maxes out at 60fps at 720p.

Is it just the processing power of the camera or something else?
 
What in terms of the design of the sensor? I'm actually interested getting into sensor design as something I'd do in a few years. So I'm trying to learn as much as I can.
 
People would kill to figure out what we did to make our sensor as clean and fast as it is. We are not interested to share much on this subject.

Jim
 
Well, what classes in a college should I take to learn the process of making sensors? I have a general overview of how they work, but I just need to go though something so I can get the specifics to the process.
 
People would kill to figure out what we did to make our sensor as clean and fast as it is. We are not interested to share much on this subject.

Jim
Click to expand...


Ooops. Right that's it, body protection for all the red team as of now:)
 
The class listed below is the kind of course you want, I think. It is a grad-level electrical engineering class, so normally you would first take the regular undergrad EE curriculum.

http://eeclass.stanford.edu/ee392b/

Catalog description
The course provides an introduction to the design and analysis of image sensors. Topics include: silicon photodetectors; spectral response and dark current; device fabrication technologies including color filters and microlens; CCD and CMOS passive and active pixel sensor architectures and circuits; nonidealities including temporal noise, Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN), smear, and lag; performance metrics including quantum efficiency, conversion gain, SNR, dynamic range, and MTF; pixel optics; spatial resolution. The course will also review recent research results and trends including architectures for high dynamic range imaging and effects of technology scaling. The course is intended for graduate students with interest in image system engineering, solid state devices, photonics, and circuits.
 
and a little off the sensor subject !!

Jim any chance you'll have your special pen with you on tuesday to sign some "R" s ? or should we wait till we pick up camera from REDs home base?
 
Jannard said:
People would kill to figure out what we did to make our sensor as clean and fast as it is. We are not interested to share much on this subject.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you have patented some of the designs fo this CMOS sensor. What's unique about the sensor is the fact that the pixel size is only microns yet it still produce 66dB. Hoow high can I set the ISO to? Can it do ISO 1600?
 
Well by nature patents are open which would mean unzipping one's fly, so to speak :)

You can either patent something and rely on the legal side to ensure that the competition doesn't copy it without paying royalties etc, or you can keep it a trade secret meaning that you'd keep your tech to yourself but risk someone else figuring it out independently and patenting it before you do.

I'd imagine the scenario for Red is to have the patents ready to file the moment the camera is publically released, since at that point competitors WILL buy them and pull them apart to figure out how they made it. Once that occurs the trade secret is no longer secret and your patents are what protect you (plus time is then on your side from an R&D to time-to-market point of view).
 
To the RED team:
1.) What's the maximum ISO setting?
2.) Is ISO 1600 or higher would be possible?
 
> Is ISO 1600 or higher would be possible?

I think this is always going to be subjective- the question is what image quality/noise tradeoff do you prefer? You can get a fair idea of this already by looking at the test images (16-bit TIFF format), where the camera was shot at ISO 200. Just push the image three stops in Photoshop to get an ISO 1600 equivalent, and evaluate the resulting image quality for yourself. The files are here:
http://www.cinematography.net/red-exposure.html
 
Thanks for your input jbeale, buy my question is about the camera's design allowable user setting for ISO. And not how the images will behave at that high of an ISO, as I'm aware of the trade-offs.
 
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