CMOS Will Soon Crop CCD Out of the Digital Picture

摘要

It's taken a while, but I've finally switched over to the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) side of the imaging battle. The charge-coupled device (CCD) has dominated digital and video imaging, while the CMOS folks have argued their chip is better because it's cheaper and can be manufactured at facilities already in place. CCD proponents have argued a CMOS image suffers from simple noise and interference, and the images have to be processed with other chips to clean up the mess. Furthermore, the first high-quality CMOS imagers, such as those used by Canon, shared some of the complexities of CCD manufacturing. At first I felt CMOS would never make it in the market, but I've changed my mind. I've now spent enough time with the makers of the Foveon X3 CMOS sensor and used the gear long enough to realize CMOS's many qualities will result in its eventual dominance.