Last Updated on 01/03/2016 by Chris Gampat
It’s time, folks! Right before CES 2016 starts, Phase One is making an announcement that they’ve collaborated with Sony to make the new 100MP full frame 645 Medium Format sensor for their new 100MP Phase One XF Camera system. Crazy, huh? To clear confusion, this is a full 645 sensor instead of it being cropped, hence why it’s called Full Frame
So what can this sensor do? It offers 16 bit color, 15 stops of dynamic range, live view capture via HDMI, ISO 50 to 12,800 and exposure of up to 50 minutes. The sensor packs101,082,464 active high quality pixels. Because it uses the XF system, it also features lots of the new features that came out at Photo Plus 2015, like the seismographic shutter delay plus, Honeybee Auto Focus, Vibration Tracking, Electronic First Curtain Shutter, and more.
Of course, this isn’t cheap at $48,990 USD. In fact, that’s more than probably most Americans make in a year and pretty much just above what you need to actually live in NYC on a yearly basis.
But that’s not all. They’re also announcing the new Phase One iXU 1000 and the iXU-R 1000 camera systems which are available in either RGB or near infrared (NIR) variants designed for aerial cameras. They promise faster capture speeds (as fast as 0.85 second per frame). The rest of this stuff is from the press release.
“At 100 megapixels, the cameras deliver 11,608 pixels cross-track coverage, which is 12 percent greater than previously available medium format aerial camera systems. Flying with an iXU-R 1000 or iXU 1000 enables users either more coverage during a flight, while maintaining the same ground sample distance (GSD), or a lower GSD, while flying at the same height. Their CMOS sensor design also enables image captures in lower light with an ISO range from 50 to 6400 as well as more flights under the clouds in low light and/or later in the day. More coverage and more flying hours result in a cost-effective, overall gain in flight efficiency and lower operational
In addition to more coverage and more flying hours, the cameras offer faster capture rates permitting more overlap for greater accuracy in producing point clouds and generating 3D presentations from nadir images.
The Phase One iXU-R 1000 and iXU 1000 enjoy all the same features as other Phase One aerial camera systems: USB 3.0 connectivity, geo-tagging of image files as they are captured, auto exposure and easy integration with all popular IMU/GNSS and flight management systems (FMS).
With a top shutter speed of 1/1600s and higher possible ISOs, the cameras can capture sharp images when flying at high altitudes with a fast flight speed or lower altitudes with low GSDs.”
