Herald Tribune links Kodak with Foveon X3! (UPDATED)
By
Mike Tomkins
(Friday, February 15, 2002 - 15:01 EST)
Article suggests that imaging giant may use the recently-announced sensors in some of its digicams...
An article published on Tuesday by the International Herald Tribune suggests that imaging industry giant Eastman Kodak Co. may be interested in using the Foveon X3 line of image sensors in some of its digital cameras. Foveon's CMOS-based X3 lineup, which was announced on Monday and currently consists of two sensors aimed at consumer and prosumer cameras respectively, is the first to record color values for all three colors (red, green and blue) at every pixel. Most traditional CCD and CMOS imagers use a color filter array that means the camera captures on of three or four colors for each pixel, and the remaining colors must be interpolated - a process which can degrade image quality and cause problems such as moire effects.
Kodak has apparently held discussions with Foveon to consider using the company's sensors in its products. IHT quotes Kodak's Madhav Mehra, manager of the Professional Digital-Capture Group, as saying: "We've been very aware of what they're doing and monitoring their progress". The article continues to note that Mehra feels Foveon's X3 could be "very significant" if it proves itself. It isn't stated which product segments (if any) would use the sensors, but it is interesting to note that the quote above came from Kodak Professional, and that the company is apparently considering X3 in "at least one part" of its product line.
For more, read the International Herald Tribune article.
UPDATED 2002-02-15 15:52ET: Our friend Phil Askey at the Digital Photography Review emailed to point out that he had mentioned a link to Kodak when the X3 sensors were announced. We did see this at the time, however without attribution or a quote from anybody at Kodak we were hesitant to pick this up. With the quote from Kodak in the IHT article, there is definite attribution - so we felt this was indeed newsworthy. No slight intended!
Source:
The International Herald Tribune Online
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