April 16, 2004
The new age of digital cameras
Foveon is a company that invented a new digital camera sensor. One that uses a 3-layer CCD instead of a single 2D grid of color receptors.
The images are nothing less than amazing.
For a while now, you could only get this technology if you bought a Sigma SD-9 or SD-10 camera, and they're a bit pricey.
Now Polaroid has announced a new 4.5MP Foveon-enabled camera for around $399 retail.
The coolest part about this chip is that EACH of those pixels can grab all three color components (see diagram below). Normal 1-layer CCDs have to use averaging algorithms to approximate real color because each pixel can only be receptive to R, G, or B. So those Foveon pixels are working harder for you, and the image clarity and color reproduction is nearly impossible to beat.
One BIG downside is that this Polaroid model is using the lower-res Foveon chip, which only produces a 1420x1060 image. Boooooo.
This chip really is the next big thing in digital photography (at least the hi-res one), and I wish it was more widely available.
Posted by andy at April 16, 2004 05:59 PM