sensors

The results of a new camera benchmark test suggest that high-end SLRs cameras from Canon and Nikon may be catching up with medium-format professional models used almost exclusively by professionals. CNET News reporter Stephen Shankland explains. This and other headlines in Tuesday's CNET News Daily Podcast.

Today's stories:

Motorola's fourth-quarter loss hits $3.6 billion

Sensor quality: SLRs erode medium-format lead

Retrevo launches DTV coupon exchange

GM eyes San Francisco, Washington for Chevy Volt

IBM to send blazing fast supercomputer to Energy Dept.

Google on trial in Italy

It looks like Canon and Nikon weren't blowing smoke when they said their high-end SLRs cameras will compete with medium-format digital cameras used almost exclusively by professionals.

Given the image quality advantages that SLRs with larger "full-frame" sensors have over mainstream and much less expensive models with smaller processors, one might have expected another quantum leap from costly high-end medium-format digital cameras with sensors twice the area of top-end SLRs. Not so, according to new DxOMark Sensor test results set for release Tuesday by French test and measurement firm DxO Labs.

The company tested image sensors from several medium-format cameras--the Mamiya ZD Back, Leaf Aptus 75S, Hasselblad H3DII 39, and Phase One P45+. These are the sorts of cameras used by fashion photographers and others who need lush tones, fine detail, and lots of megapixels to handle big photos such as magazine spreads.

But none outperformed the Nikon D3X SLR, whose score of 88 gives it the current top rank on DxO's sensor tests. … Read more

Panasonic's $670 G1 and Olympus' $540 E-520 and $450 E-410--that show both the advantages and disadvantages of the Four Thirds standards the companies use.

The Four Thirds system governs image sensor sizes and the mounting mechanism for interchangeable lenses on the companies' SLR cameras, and the companies announced a new variation called Micro Four Thirds for smaller cameras that have SLRs' interchangeable lenses but not SLRs' "reflex" mirror, which directs light through an optical viewfinder before a shot is taken.

Four Thirds SLRs have a smaller sensor than lower-end SLRs from market leaders Nikon and Canon, which poses image quality challenges because there's less surface area to gather light. However, the sensor size is the same for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds, which means that cameras using the latter have a much larger sensor than typical compact cameras have. … Read more

It's not a surprise that the Nikon D3X, the company's brand-new $8,000, 24.5-megapixel SLR, tops DxO Labs' sensor performance test. What is a surprise is the margin by which it leads its rivals from Canon and Sony.

When the French firm unveiled its DxOMark Sensor benchmark test last year, Nikon's D3 was the top scorer at 80.6, a composite number that represents various performance features. Very close on its heels were Nikon's D700 at 80.5, Canon's EOS-1Ds Mark III 80.3, and later Canon's 5D Mark II at 79 and Sony's Alpha A900 at 78.9.

All those cameras were close, but the D3X stands apart with a score of 88. The result shows how much ground Nikon has made up on Canon, which has dominated high-end digital SLR technology. … Read more

Correction on Wednesday at 11:27 a.m. PST: A press release on which this story was partially based misidentified which NASA mission the technology will be used for. This post was updated with correct information. The energy-harvesting sensors are part of research for forthcoming Mars Scout Missions.

Engineers at Kansas State University have developed a radio with sensors and microprocessors that can transmit data and is self-sufficient when it comes to power.

The device, called by the engineers an "energy-harvesting radio," is essentially a wireless sensor with microprocessor and radio that can transfer a flash of data … Read more

One verdict is in on Canon's EOS 5D Mark II: its sensor ranks very high on DxO Labs' test of sensor performance.

The black-spot issue notwithstanding, Canon's new full-frame SLR came in at fourth place with a score of 79.0, bumping Sony's 78.9-scoring Alpha A900 down a peg but still trailing Canon's top-end EOS-1Ds Mark III at 80.3. Nikon's D700, the closest rival to the 5D Mark II, is a notch ahead at 80.5.

More relevant for the potential upgrade market, new Canon SLR's score is significantly better from that of its predecessor, the 5D, whose score is 70.9. On a pixel-by-pixel basis, the 12.8-megapixel 5D's sensor actually has a lower signal-to-noise ratio, but when measured over an entire 8x10 print, the 5D Mark II's higher 21.1-megapixel resolution wins on that measurement.

The DxOMark Sensor test measures how well a camera's sensor fares when it comes to dynamic range, color depth, and low-light performance. The test doesn't measure any number of other camera issues such as autofocus, value, or image processing. But it's still useful given DxO Labs' engineering rigor and the central role a sensor plays in the abilities of a camera.

Pixel-peepers have been devouring DxO's new statistics; the curious can try this link to a comparison of the 5D Mark II, Nikon D700, and Sony A900. However, it should be noted, DxO Labs considers that scores must be at least of 5 points apart to be significant.

There's been much discussion about whether the $2,700 5D Mark II performs better than the $6,500 1Ds Mark III, which has the same resolution. The DxOMark tests give the edge to the top-end model based on its better color and dynamic range--the ability to capture both bright and dark regions--but the 5D Mark II wins out in low-light performance. Digging deeper into the charts, though, the 5D Mark II fares better in dynamic range at higher ISOs.

All these cameras perform better than the common herd by virtue of full-frame sensors measuring 36x24mm, the size of a full frame of 35mm film. Most digital SLRs have a smaller sensor that can't capture as much information overall, but those models are vastly more affordable. … Read more

If you're intrigued by multitouch technology as much as I am, you've probably been following it pretty closely and are at least impressed by its potential.

But what could it do better? According to Apple, taking the "touch" out of multitouch would be a good first step.

According to an article on AppleInsider, Apple has issued a 30-page patent that touches on the implementation of proximity sensors into its multitouch technology on devices larger than the iPhone.

The multitouch sensors combined with proximity sensors would let users interact with the given interface without actually having to touch the screen. Now, this seems a tad ridiculous to me, and is anyone really too lazy to move their finger an extra inch? Yeah they are, but that doesn't make it a good idea.

Apple sees some different applications for the technology. According to the company, users would have the capability to turn off the entire touch-screen panel, or just portions of it. In addition, users would able to power down one or more of the computer's systems by dimming or brightening the screen as they see fit.

Awesome, huh?! Alas, no. OK, I may be missing something, but why would you need a proximity sensor to do this? You could just move your finger another inch and accomplish the same thing. The only unique feature Apple cited from the filing was the idea that you could highlight virtual buttons on a display without touching them. This could prepare the button for actually being pushed. Again, how is this useful?… Read more

A French company called DxO Labs has launched a Web site for the detail-obsessed camera crowd. CNET News reporter Stephen Shankland explains why it's getting a lot of attention.

That and the day's headlines, in Monday's podcast.

Today's stories:

DxO sheds light on camera sensor performance

Inventor files patent suit over iPhone Web browsing

Apple cutting hours for part-time retail workers?

Online advertising forecast grows bleaker

Report: Army to sink $50 million into combat training games

NFL demos live 3D broadcasts

A correction was made to this story. See below for details.

DxO Labs, a French company with deep experience measuring cameras' technical performance, has launched a Web site called DxOMark.com that features detailed information on the performance of the image sensor at the heart of many higher-end digital cameras.

Many Web sites and magazines measure camera image quality with varying degrees of rigor, typically examining either the JPEG that the camera produces or a processed version of the camera's raw. But with its DxOMark Sensor measurement, DxO takes a new approach by judging the sensor performance based on the unprocessed "raw" image file from higher-end cameras such as SLRs.

That's significant, because raw images typically must go through a conversion process called demosaicing before they're useful for viewing. Most digital cameras capture only a single color--red, green, or blue--for each sensor pixel. Demosaicing fills in the gaps in this colored checkerboard pattern so each pixel gets all three color components, but this processing stage can disguise sensor performance.

The detail-obsessed camera crowd has begun eagerly chomping on the new data. On Sunday, there were 220 mentions of DxOmark on the Digital Photography Review forums, a popular location for impassioned technical discussions.

New tests coming More measurements are coming, added Nicolas Touchard, vice president of marketing for DxO Labs' image quality evaluation business. First, in two or three weeks, will come measurements for medium-format digital camera sensors from companies including Hasselblad, Mamiya, Phase One, and Leaf. Then will come more high-end compact "bridge" cameras.

DxOMark Image Processing for the camera's computer, whose job it is to perform tasks such as converting raw images to JPEG, and DxOMark Optics for lenses.

The latter measurement will go beyond most lens tests by showing how well each lens works on each camera rather than one or two reference models. DxO takes that approach because lenses behave differently because different cameras have different attributes such as the geometry of the microlenses that help each sensor pixel gather more light, Touchard said.

DxO makes a business out of detailed measurements of camera performance, selling the data to camera and chip companies and incorporating it into its own DxO Optics Pro raw-processing software for photographers. So why give some of the data away for free on a Web site? Publicity.

… Read more