New Kodak Technology Boosts Light Sensitivity in Cameras

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://wcbstv.com/technology/local_story_164154110.html' target='_blank'>http://wcbstv.com/technology/local_story_164154110.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"A year from now, capturing a crisp, clear image of a candlelit birthday party could be a piece of cake—even with a camera phone. Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday it has developed a color-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera, enabling shutterbugs to take better pictures in poor light. "Low light can mean trying to get a good image indoors of your kid blowing out the birthday candles. It can mean you want to take a photograph on a street corner in Paris at midnight," said Chris McNiffe, general manager of the photography company's image sensor business. "We're talking about a 2-to-4-times improvement in (light) sensitivity." Analyst Chris Chute doesn't doubt that the new filter system, intended to supplant an industry-standard filter pattern designed by Kodak scientist Bryce Bayer in 1976, represents a breakthrough in boosting photo quality—especially when light conditions are not ideal."</i><br /><br />Kodak is developing color-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera. No more details appear to be available. While this 'new technology' sounds excellent to me in principle, this feature is more commonly known to us as ISO. And we all have seen that as you boost the ISO setting on your camera to 1600 or even 3200 for those of you that have it, the pictures get more and more grainy. It may, of course, turn out that Kodak's new system actually boosts light via a completely different method that is not victim to this problem, but the articles on this story don't say one way or another.

[Jason Dunn]

Assuming this isn't hype, if they're doubling the sensitivity of the sensor, that might mean that shooting at ISO 800 would give you as much light as at ISO 1600...which means more light but less noise. Could be VERY cool!

[Kris Kumar]

I am also pretty excited by this announcement. Recently during my vacation I took a lot of photos in poor light conditions and on top of that they were handheld, needless to say very few turned out to be as good as I wanted them to be.

:evil:

[cameron]

This is truly one area where digital camera makers can set themselves apart from the rest of the field. Canon has done a fantastic job the last few years boosting the low-light sensitivity of its chips (as evidenced by the lower amount of noise at higher ISOs than others) - but you can really only go so far.

The manufacturers have been compensating with image stabilization systems that allow you to shoot at longer shutter speeds - however that doesn't compensate for the subject's natural movement.

If Kodak can come up with a new chip that accurately reproduces color (difficult at lower light levels) and minimizes noise they'll definitely have a winner.