Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 18, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Not too long ago, Bryce Bayer died, the inventor of the Bayer filter. Will his colour filter in digital cameras soon also be a thing of the past? Panasonic’s developers have presented a new sensor technology in the scientific journal Nature.
For colour information, the "Micro Color Splitter" technology places not a Bayer filter in front of the sensor but grids with microscopic prisms. Instead of filtering the light as before, it is split by the prisms, so that according to Panasonic the pixels behind them receive different colour information with practically no loss of light. This is intended to greatly increase the light sensitivity of sensors and allow all incident light to be used – not just 30 to 50 percent as before.
According to Panasonic, this technology can gain more than one stop, allowing images to be recorded with purer colour reproduction and visibly reducing noise in poor lighting conditions.
Images: Panasonic
It will certainly be some time before this sensor technolgy goes into series production – Panasonic has not yet provided any information about this.
