Sigma announces 10-Mega-Pixel Digital Camera with New Image Sensor

An image sensor developed by U.S. Foveon Inc. was adopted for SD9 for the first time. This camera is different from conventional ones in that all the RGB information is obtainable at each pixel. Image sensors generally adopted by digital cameras -- CCD or CMOS -- can obtain brightness from one color in a single pixel. Thus, the RGB information of each pixel is calculated using ambient pixels.

The X3 makes use of properties of light that are characterized by how far the light reaches into a substance, and this depends on its wavelength when passing through the substance. For example, in the case of underwater photography, red colors almost fully disappear and an entirely blue-colored world appears instead. This is because red colors (out of the solar white light) travel shorter than other colors, and thus do not reach far under water.

By utilizing the properties of light, the BGR information is obtained in the order from the surface of an image sensor. It is possible for the X3 to obtain information worth of 10.62 million pixels, or three times 3.54 million pixels (an effective number of pixels of SD9 are 10.26 million). The image that can be recorded is 2,268 x 1,512 pixels. The surface of X3 is 13.8mm long x 20.7mm wide, almost similar to that of a film based on APS format, and is nearly 15 times larger than a 3-million-pixel CCD.

What a beauty!