This is fantastic, especially the part about what sensors could be if reimagined.
"But we're still doing that today, after decades of digital camera technology, and it really makes no sense anymore: why are we still lump-sum recording light instead of using sensors that can tell how much light passes through it per time unit, instead of "filling up"? (...) Instead of starting a sensor, letting light fall on it, and then turning it off and asking it how much light it found, we have the technological capability to make sensors that change electrical resistance based on how strong a light hits them."
That would mean almost unlimited dynamic range.
One avenue for possible disruption that the article does not mention is through digital cinematography first, where a sensor would have to be "only" 8 Mpixels (4K), and the users have more budget and care about dynamic range. This could starts with the likes of Red or Black Magic and eventually trickle down to the photo market.
Is there any prototype of such a sensor anywhere? What would it take for this to be produced using current processes? Is there any foundry today that could miniaturize these photoresistors?
I'm hoping this is what Black Magic will achieve, really, with their UHDTV-4K cameras (which use the Rec.2020 colour space, which is really wide). With TVs slowly moving to 4K, and hopefully monitors to follow, the idea of a rec.2020 colour space across the workflow is _immensely_ appealing. Although right now, not quite affordable ($3500 for a camera that's really currently only seriously marketed by a single brand, plus $800 per single 4k monitor, it's not consumer-cheap yet)
"But we're still doing that today, after decades of digital camera technology, and it really makes no sense anymore: why are we still lump-sum recording light instead of using sensors that can tell how much light passes through it per time unit, instead of "filling up"? (...) Instead of starting a sensor, letting light fall on it, and then turning it off and asking it how much light it found, we have the technological capability to make sensors that change electrical resistance based on how strong a light hits them."
That would mean almost unlimited dynamic range.
One avenue for possible disruption that the article does not mention is through digital cinematography first, where a sensor would have to be "only" 8 Mpixels (4K), and the users have more budget and care about dynamic range. This could starts with the likes of Red or Black Magic and eventually trickle down to the photo market.
Is there any prototype of such a sensor anywhere? What would it take for this to be produced using current processes? Is there any foundry today that could miniaturize these photoresistors?
Thanks again for the article, very refreshing!