Sony CCD Announcement and Atik Cameras

[Slawomir]

So it looks like we have about 10 years before CMOS will start replacing CCDs in astro camera's, given of course that other manufacturers of CCDs will also follow this path...

http://www.atik-cameras.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Atik-SonyCCD.pdf

[RickS]

Good to see some accurate info on this, thanks Slawomir.

[gregbradley]

Sony is not the best at PR.

That's good to hear. I wonder if they will bring out another range if they are planning that far into the future. Maybe an Exview 3? APS sized sensor would be nice.

Greg.

[Amaranthus]

Excellent news! Larger chips, lower noise for the future?

[Slawomir]

And hopefully cheaper too!

[gregbradley]

And perhaps a decent CMOS chip that can bridge us over to CMOS from CCD. It seems industry is going in that direction and we risk being stuck in 2009 technology.

Its already been about 6 years or more of the same sensors and no/little progress in the CCD world.


Greg.

[Slawomir]

Perhaps there has been little progress in the CCD world in the recent years because companies were putting increasingly more resources somewhere else? But who would really know?

While it is certainly interesting to see changes in technology, I just hope the shift from CCD to CMOS, while being largely driven by HD video recording "of everything" mania, will not result in replacing CCDs with cheaper, faster yet inferior for low light applications technology.

But it seems to me that true progress comes not by the development of the old, but by revolutionary and sometimes radical changes :)

[RickS]

As in the past, we'll get whatever the life sciences guys want :) Astro imaging is a rounding error in the scheme of things, unfortunately.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

Sony seems to be the only one in terms of practical cost to amateurs who have made advancements to CCDs. I suppose the 50mp 50% QE FLI Proline is an advance for those who want super widefield images with 100mb file to process and 65mm filters.

The main criticism of the Sony chips is they are quite small and an APSc sized one with Exview Had 11 would be awesome.

The older Kodak chips have had minor tweakings with a KAI 16050 and 16070 sensors but otherwise nothing. It seems unlikely to produce anything radical as the Sony move indicates industry is switching to CMOS no doubt for cost reasons so the CCD may be a thing of the past soon.

Better stock up on your favourite CCD within the next few years then.

Greg.