curved image sensors

[richardHaw]

http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.jp/2017/07/cea-leti-presents-ff-curved-sensor.html

will this be a thing in the future? looks like a very big development that has many scientific uses. landscape photographers will be very happy with this I suppose 

[David H. Hartman]

That's nothing new! My 1958 Kodak Baby Brownie had a curved sensor.

Dave Hartman

[David H. Hartman]

Will there be curved printing paper in the future?

[Les Olson]

A spherical lens focuses light passing through the centre of the lens further away than light passing through the periphery.  Correcting that requires either multiple spherical elements or aspherical surfaces, which are heavy in the first case and expensive in the second.  A curved sensor abolishes the problem.  The catch for ordinary photography is that the required curvature is different for every focal length, so it would work with a camera like the Ricoh GXR, that had interchangeable lens+sensor units, but not with an ordinary ILC.  That is why it is suggested for medical and astronomical use, where having a single focal length is not a problem. 

[pluton]

I suspect that some enterprising person will market a curved sensor camera for the general/consumer market, and further predict that said camera will be locked into auto exposure and produce only JPEGs.

[richardHaw]

https://nikonrumors.com/2017/07/20/the-latest-nikon-lens-patents-incl-35mm-f2-full-frame-lens-designed-for-a-curved-sensor.aspx/

Nikon curved sensor lenses patents 

yes, it is going to be a thing 

[Roland Vink]

I wonder if it is for a fixed lens compact? In such a camera the sensor and lens could be perfectly matched for each other.

On the hand, the lens has quite large back-focus distance, I'd expect a compact camera to be, well, more compact

So maybe it is for an interchangeable lens camera. But as Les mentioned, a sensor needs different curvature for every focal length, so how would that work for interchangeable lenses? Maybe a camera designed specially for wide lenses, another mid-range, and another for telephotos??

[David H. Hartman]

I would think a curved sensor would be a problem for telephoto lenses and micro lenses. It doesn't strike me as a good idea for an interchangeable lens camera.

Wide angle lenses I'd think would profit and could be designed for a average sensor while telephoto lenses and micro lenses would be more difficult to design for a curved sensor. I'd think it best for a fix lens camera, the kind the market for is imploding.

Dave

[richardHaw]

it is a 35/2. so yes, maybe a premium compact 

[Les Olson]

A high proportion of lens patents never become lenses.  The designs are patented in case they are wanted at some time in the future, and as protection against patent trolls. 

The DL cameras were high-end non-ILCs, so it is not hard to imagine a successor being non-ILC.  It is hard to see Nikon giving it a single focal length lens instead of a zoom like the DL, however.  I would be interested in a compact APS-C camera with a fixed 35mm lens, but I doubt there is a big market. 

When a camera is for documentation a fixed, known focal length and a curved sensor is ideal.  A lot of that happens in health care, eg - pre and post-surgical documentation by plastic surgeons and dentists, lesion surveillance by dermatologists, telemedicine etc.  A fixed 35mm lens with a curved sensor might be for a niche "documentation" camera. 

[Alaun]

I think the third mentioned patent there on nikonrumors is quite interesting about “Another converter lens patent - probably for a fix lens camera”. It is about a relay lens, which enables to use a lens, which would interfere with a mirror box, on a camera with a mirror box  ….

US2017192209 (A1) ― 2017-07-06
Inverted Equal - Magnification Relay Lens And Camera System

[longzoom]

Curved sensor today is possible for fixed lens p/s or astro camera. In not so far future liquid synthetic sensor, the curvature of one will be driven by the chip, will be created for wide diapason of interchangeable lens video/photo symbiosis camera. Sheer resolving power of such the sensor will be limited by quantity of surface light - sensitive elements, dimension of each element will be equal to the size of molecule. In 8-10 years it will come true, I believe.  LZ