# New sensor color filter technology?



## Famateur (Nov 2, 2015)

Just saw this on my local news website: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=37193274&nid=1012&title=smartphone-cameras-could-see-significant-improvement-thanks-to-u-innovation&s_cid=queue-14

It appears to be a departure from red/green/blue color filter arrays that allows far more light to be collected.

For those here with advanced knowledge of sensor design, what do you think?


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## Stu_bert (Nov 2, 2015)

You lose 2/3 of light when it hits the CFA before getting to the sensor. Wow, that's a lot...

What they dont say is how much computational work is required to calculate the colours, but I'm sure they will be reaching out to Sony to see if they want to license the tech...

Thanks for sharing...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Nov 3, 2015)

While I hope that there is a technology advancement, we see PR releases from Universities like clockwork as they compete for research grant dollars. I've never actually seen one of them appear in our ordinary cameras.

Black Silicon has been going to revolutionize the camera industry for 15 years now. There are a ton of others.

I've become pessimistic about University PR releases.


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## Stu_bert (Nov 4, 2015)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> While I hope that there is a technology advancement, we see PR releases from Universities like clockwork as they compete for research grant dollars. I've never actually seen one of them appear in our ordinary cameras.
> 
> Black Silicon has been going to revolutionize the camera industry for 15 years now. There are a ton of others.
> 
> I've become pessimistic about University PR releases.



I just was surprised more by how much current CFAs lose light before it hits the sensor. Even if that's an exaggerated figure, it's still presumably a significant amount

Black Sililcon - by that time the camera industry will be niche, almost boutique, but at least smartphones will benefit and my 1DX MK V


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## 3kramd5 (Nov 4, 2015)

^^ well, when each pixel filters out all light but that of a fairly small color range, obviously the sensor is being starved of the total available. Whether it's 75% depends on what parts of the visible spectrum would otherwise have been counted. 75 sounds... reasonable.

Has anyone compared the light gathering of a CFA camera versus a dedicated monochrome of equal generation and tech?


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## 9VIII (Nov 4, 2015)

With today's resolution you could easily have an RGBW (white) pixel layout without losing much color resolution. The problem, as I understand it (reading Wikipedia), is just that a bunch of trolls went and patented the idea. As as alternative people have just been making green cells increasingly transparent.
I remember hearing rumors that a stronger color filter is part of why the 5Ds has worse low light performance.


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## Orangutan (Nov 4, 2015)

Stu_bert said:


> You lose 2/3 of light when it hits the CFA before getting to the sensor. Wow, that's a lot...
> 
> What they dont say is how much computational work is required to calculate the colours, but I'm sure they will be reaching out to Sony to see if they want to license the tech...
> 
> Thanks for sharing...



This is a major reason I hope mirrorless cameras quickly acquire a 3-sensor design: no filtering. Losses should be much less through a trichroic prism than through a CFA.


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