What I really mean is that if the group which is really just Edmond and maybe one or two others then we have very limited options. We can either try the CCD road and have a large sensor - even larger than what is available now or we can wait some years until larger CMOS sensors are available and cheap.
Eric,
You have stated the problem for MF users perfectly - and also explained why they have to pay atrocious prices.
AFAIK, CCD and CMOS essentially cost the same price in large-ish sizes; the price is determined by chip area, not megapixels. The only thing is there are no large size CMOS chips available at the moment.
However, AFAIK, CCD is essentially dead - the existing chips will be produced and reproduced, but no engineer who *I* know wants to go anywhere near that technology if they are not specialists; the lesson from the Aathon failure serves as a cautionary tale. So Dalsa and Truesense have essentially *run out of new customers* for their smaller full-frame designs. The smallish interline designs are also going to get killed by the new generation CMOS chips with fast global shutters.
The usual suspects who already have CCD camera backs and engineers who understand CCD electronics and calibration may release new backs based on similar or larger chips; the rumored existence of stocks of high quality but aging large format sensors may be persuasive in a market where a large-size back sells for an engineers annual income in Europe. However as I say, I don't think any new entrant is going to go anywhere near the technology.
My feeling is that now that the Omerta has been broken by Sony, and CMOSIS, the reigning large chip champions Dalsa and Truesense will of necessity release larger and fully digital chips to the general public, and the availability issues will solve themselves. They doubtless have some designs, but have not made them commercially available. I would expect such designs - at least small versions- to appear within a matter of months. It is clear that
their websites are already preparing the customers for the switchover.
Now, nobody with an ounce of sense in the civilian visible-light imaging community is going to budget for expensive analog engineering and shielding if a competing chip can be found that outputs digital data directly. You can see this revolt at Leica who moved away from the analog design of the M8 and M9 CCDs to a CMOSIS (Fillfactory) CMOS design, and got a simpler design problem, higher ISO, liveview and video as a result. I would expect the next S to lift a larger chip off the same shoulder
Blackmagic seem to be using a smaller device from CMOSIS as well, with good commercial and practical success.
I may be wrong on all of the above. In any case I have a project which calls for looking at a CMOS design, and I will be setting up a lab experiment soon to gather some real-world experience.
This stuff is new to me, but I'm now gathering and organizing my information form an engineering perspective. I hope you will forgive me for my superficial treatment of what is doubtless a difficult topic.
I remain as always, your most humble servant.
Edmund
