Fujifilm & Samsung

Back in 2018 Samsung and Fujifilm officially announced the development of a new CMOS image sensor technology for enhanced light sensitivity and color fidelity, called ISOCELL Plus sensor

The evolution of the first generation ISOCELL sensor was made possible by a special material developed by Fujifilm, which allowed it to remove the metal grid between single pixels, hence for more light to hit the sensor.

On July 1, 2019, Samsung published another article with additional details about ISOCELL Plus. You can read it summed up in practical bullet points below.

First you have to know about front-side illuminated (FSI) and back-side illuminated (BSI) sensors that:

• FSI sensors block 20% to 70% of light from the photodiode
• BSI sensors solved this problem, but there is the pixel crosstalk problem
• Crosstalk happens when light ment for a specific pixel leaks into the neighboring photodiodes, causing noise in the final image

ISOCELL advantages over FSI and BSI sensors:

• Thanks to a metal grid between pixels, ISOCELL sensors have 30% less pixel crosstalk compared to BSI sensors
• increased full well capacity (FWC) by approximately 30%
• higher color fidelity
• tack-sharp images
• greater dynamic range
• wider chief ray angle (CRA) by capturing more oblique light, which ultimately allows for brighter lenses with wider aperture

ISOCELL Plus Advantages over ISOCELL

• The metal grids in the ISOCELL sensors reduced crosstalk, but lead to some optical loss as they absorbed incoming light or reflected light to neighboring pixels
• ISOCELL PLUS replaces the metal grid with an innovative Fujifilm material that minimizes optical loss and light reflection
• ISOCELL Plus deliver higher color fidelity and up to a 15% enhancement in light sensitivity compared to first generation ISOCELL sensor
• allows sensors to equip pixels of 0.8-micrometer (µm) or smaller without any performance loss, making it an optimal solution for developing high-resolution cameras
• ISOCELL Plus will also bring performance enhancements for sensors with larger pixel designs

The technology is ment for smartphones, but it’s not forbidden for us to dream and hope that Fujifilm and Samsung will find agreements to make this sensor find its way into Fujifilm APS-C and MF cameras.

Especially the last sentence, where they say “ISOCELL Plus will also bring performance enhancements for sensors with larger pixel designs“, makes hope for that to happen one day.

Will there be a Samsung sensor in Fujifilm cameras?

If you want to know before anyone else, than just follow FujiRumors.

FOLLOW FujiRumors Facebook, Flipboard, Youtube, Instagram, RSS-feed and Twitter