Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/06/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I think the price is more due to production volume than sensor cost. Canon sell more digital rebels every 6 months than Leica have made in their entire history. I haven't read up recently but when I last looked into it CMOS sensors could have much more hardware on-chip. This means despite a much more expensive tooling process the individual CMOS assemblies can be made cheaper than CCD if vast volumes are made. The basically inferior performance can be largely compensated in firmware. CCD is inherently superior in itself and has lower tooling cost so is suitable for smaller production volumes. It requires less in-firmware correction which again is ideal if a maker has to amortise software development costs over a smaller number of units. This is probably why Leica and MF makers use CCD both the quality and volume match their requirements. CCD is however inferior in temperature noise which makes it less suited to high iso and pretty well unusable for live view. So anyone wanting high iso and live-view will have to wait for a CMOS M10 and hope they manage to write adequate firmware for the picture quality at low iso to match the M9. IIRC... FD ----- Original Message ---- From: Michiel Fokkema <michiel.fokkema at gmail.com> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> Sent: Thursday, 23 June, 2011 13:18:56 Subject: Re: [Leica] Wired article on the M9-P including an interview with Leica's CEO Well yeah, but that was long ago. The modern canon and Nikon cameras also use CMOS sensors. Most users are happy whit those and they seem to be cheaper too. Cheers, Michiel Fokkema On 23 June 2011 14:11, Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at earthlink.net> wrote: > Michiel Fokkema wrote: > > >But switching to a CMOS sensor is interesting. Aren't those better on high > >iso? > > Not necessarily. The Kodak SLR/c and SLR/n used a CMOS sensor and was not > highly regarded at ISO 400 or higher. The sensor's color filter array is a > bigger influence but the flip side is color quality. Good high ISO > generally leads to poorer color gradation, and vice versa. > > Doug Herr > Birdman of Sacramento > http://www.wildlightphoto.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > -- -------------------------------------------- Fokkema Fotografie www.michielfokkema.com michiel.fokkema at gmail.com GSM:+31 (0) 615569576 _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information