CURVED CAMERA SENSORS MIGHT BE COMING

Sony is hinting at a new curved camera sensor design, and it might be coming sooner than you think.

Where did the idea of a camera originate from? Well, it was the idea of replicating what an eye can do. The first-ever "cameras" were invented by the Chinese almost 1,000BCE, and then studied intensely by the Greeks a few hundred years later. It was called a camera obscurer, which was more of a projector than a camera as we know it. Basically, it was a light-controlled room with a tiny hole on one end which would project an inverted and upsidedown image on the wall on the other end.

But, as time went on, light-sensitive film replaced the obscurer and the film was indeed flat when capturing an image. This concept was replaced by a digital sensor in what was basically the same design camera, and SLR (Single Lens Reflex).

It's hard to fault modern-day professional cameras, but faults are indeed still there. The edges of a sensor are usually less focussed than the centre, and the corners usually gather more light than the centre of the image as well. But, with in-camera processing, this is usually resolved, although still not perfect.

The reason for this is that, due to the refraction of the lens used, light takes longer to get to the centre of a sensor than to the corners, which result in inaccurate sampling. The best solution would be to go back to the evolutionary drawing board and curve a sensor to the same angle as a retina – which is exactly what Sony has claimed to be working on.

Take a look at the video below by YouTube channel, Tony & Chelsea Northrup, on Curved Sony Camera Sensors Are Coming - Leaked.