China Electronics Wholesaler

Fujifilm announces Super CCD EXR

Pre-Photokina 2008: Fujifilm's second technology announcement of the day is the latest development of its Super CCD sensor, Super CCD EXR. Designed as a 'three in one' sensor combining the benefits of high resolution, high sensitivity and wide dynamic range, Super CCD EXR uses a totally new color filter array and has the ability to process half the pixels separately. This should, according to the press release, get Fujifilm closer to the holy grail of compact camera design; small sensors that don't sacrifice noise and DR for resolution. Again there's no product this time around.

Press Release:

Revolutionary sensor blazes the way to a new era of high image quality “Super CCD EXR”

A ‘three-in-one’ sensor for high resolution, high sensitivity and wide dynamic range Made by photographic specialists for photographic specialists

PHOTOKINA 2008, COLOGNE, GERMANY, September 23, 2008 FUJIFILM Corporation, on the anniversary of 10 years of FinePix cameras, has developed “Super CCD EXR,” a revolutionary new sensor developed in the rigorous pursuit of high image quality.

There is strong demand in the digital camera market to increase the number of pixels on a sensor, which, all too often, is used as a convenient yardstick for image quality. While introducing excellent 12-megapixel cameras such as the FinePix F50fd and the FinePix F100fd, Fujifilm has had great success in increasing pixel density while at the same time controlling noise and optimizing sensitivity. Fujifilm’s campaign to improve overall image quality, while at the same time increasing sensor resolution, has been coordinated under the program of ‘Real Photo Technology.’

‘Real Photo Technology’ is underpinned by the belief that experienced photographers, many brought up using famous reversal films like FUJICHROME Velvia or PROVIA, understand that true image quality is about a combination of many factors like tone, hue, color fidelity, dynamic range, sharpness, and resolution. It is well known that increasing the pixel count on a sensor actually makes it more difficult to achieve high sensitivity and wide dynamic range. As the photodiode gets smaller, the problems of increased noise, blooming and clipping increase. Super CCD EXR

It is widely believed that ‘high resolution’ and ‘high sensitivity’ are irreconcilable opposites, and impossible to optimize on the same sensor, particularly for compact cameras, where sensors are necessarily smaller. High quality pictures are dependent on the subject. Excellent low light pictures need high sensitivity; high contrast pictures need wide dynamic range, while fine details, like the leaves of a tree or strands of a model’s hair, depend on high resolution. Fujifilm engineers set about the task of building a Flexible sensor to match the demands of the photographer. The end-goal is to produce a sensor that works as close to that of the human eye as possible. Whatever nuance of color or sensitivity of tone that makes the scene so special to the photographer should be the continual challenge of the sensor engineer. The EXR sensor is essentially a switchable sensor; changing its complex electronic behavior to suit the subject, changing its characteristics as the photographer demands, and producing the very best picture without making compromises.

“Super CCD EXR” is the latest new generation of Super CCD to be produced by Fujifilm. Over the years, Fujifilm has excelled in high resolution sensors through ‘HR’ technology (F50fd, F100fd) and high sensitivity/wide dynamic range through ‘SR’ sensors (S3 Pro, S5 Pro). The direction in the future will be to combine HR and SR technology together to produce one universal sensor suitable for all high quality photography.

The Technology of Super CCD EXR

Super CCD EXR offers three main changes from previous Fujifilm sensors:

1. A new arrangement of the mosaic color filter
2. A new method of pixel binning
3. A complete revision of the electronic charge control

Conventional Super CCD color filter array layout	Super CCD EXR color filter array layout
Super CCD EXR structure

1. EXR: ‘Pixel Fusion Technology’ for High Sensitivity and Low Noise

Boosting sensitivity by increasing gain causes the generation of random increased noise, and conventional efforts to control this noise have resulted in blurred images and loss of resolution. On the other hand, a low-noise signal can be obtained by pixel binning. However, the conventional approach to binning (along the horizontal and vertical axis) generates false colors because of the separation of pixels of the same color. Because it is necessary to suppress this phenomenon, the result is a significant drop in sharpness.

EXR changes the color filter arrangement. Two side-by-side, same-colored pixels are taken together as a single pixel. With this design, the area of imaging elements is doubled, the sensitivity is twice the normal level, and ‘dark noise’ is extremely small. Therefore it is possible to create a high sensitivity image with little noise, instead of increasing the gain from a single pixel and increasing the noise.