What's the skinny on Fuji's New "Super CCD?" Are they really fudging on the resolution or is this new technology something that'll shake up digial camera developement? Has anyone seen any images from the new 4700 (consumer model) or Pro S1 (pro version)? And if so, where on the web can I find them? Thanks in advance for any info on these questi

-- Dan Burkholder (danphoto@aol.com), March 21, 2000

Answers

Minolta have a similar product out in the RD 3000. It uses two smaller 1.5 Megapixel CCD sensors and a beam-splitter prism in the optical system to divide the image between the two. It then uses some clever software to "stitch" the 2 CCD images together to make a 2.7 Megapixel final image. As far as I can tell, reading between the lines of Fuji's blurb, Fuji are using a similar system on their camera, though it might use 3 instead of 2 smaller CCDs.

Seems to me it would make more sense to split the image 3 ways through red, green and blue dichroic filters and overlay the images from monochrome sensors, but then what do I know?

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 22, 2000.

Sorry, I realise I didn't explain that the above guess only applies to the Pro S1. The 4700 uses just one CCD, but with a new sensor geometry that Fuji have dubbed the "Super CCD". In fact it's the same piddlingly small size as every other companies CCD, but just maximises the sensor area, as explained here:

Super CCD technical Info

There are some smaple images on Fuji's website at:

Fuji digital cameras page

Hope this is of some use.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 22, 2000.

The real skinny is they are using interpolation to come up with the 6.1 megapixel number; it's a 3 megapixel camera. JVC is also trying to pull the same marketing game, but if you notice there's mircoprint that states the 6.1 figure is coming from interpolation. Fuji was the first to get in trouble with the digital community for BS'ing these figures. You buy a 6 MP camera, you expect to get just that, but crafty people who understand megapixel technology are the ones who exposed the marketing game.

-- Sue Bald (destiny3@ix.netcom.com), June 08, 2000.