If you want to see the future today, look towards what the big guys are developing for film and broadcast. The product of a recent partnership between Panasonic and Samsung gives us a small glimpse of that tech. And we could see it out in the field as soon as the next Olympic games.
Back in February, Panasonic announced it had developed an organic image sensor capable of taking 8K video at 60fps and which also featured a “global shutter.” Accomplished in coordination with Korean tech giant Samsung, the AK-SHB810 comes seven years after the tech underpinning it was first patented, according to DPReview.
The camera is a head unit that connects to an off board processing unit via fiber optic cable. The new device is expected to debut next year and, it is hoped, the new units will be ready for Tokyo 2020 when Japan hosts the Olympics. Not only is Panasonic positioning this as an ideal broadcasting tool but also the Olympics would be the perfect showcase for it. A press release referenced by DPReview also discussed using the camera for feature film production.
CMOS sensors work by using the silicone as the light sensitive medium with the readout rate determining the shutter speed, or, as DPReview succinctly puts it, “the separation of the light gathering function of the sensor from the readout process and its circuitry”. In organic image sensors these two processes are completely independent of one another. This prevents the “rolling shutter” effect that distorts images and makes it ideal for indoor sporting events without a lot of flash. The way the internal organic image sensor works, bright bands of light won’t occur because of the global shutter.
As you can imagine, being professional-grade equipment none of this is going to come cheap.
