Kodak's Tech Brief - The Genetics of Pro SLR Digital Cameras

April 1, 2004 In the world of digital single-lens reflex cameras those favored by professional photographers balance can mean everything. Using a large lens with a small image-capturing sensor means compromising the wide-angle shots those lenses are designed to produce until now.

Kodak's Tech Brief for March looks at the "genetics" of professional digital cameras the science and sensors that deliver full-frame, high-resolution images in new digital SLR cameras used by portrait, commercial and wedding photographers.

Kodak recently introduced two 14-megapixel professional digital cameras: the Nikon-derived SLR/n that uses Nikon lenses, and the new Kodak Professional Pro SLR/c digital camera for owners of Canon EF lenses. Both cameras feature an all-new, full-frame Complementary Metal Oxide Sensor (CMOS) larger and more responsive to varying light conditions than those found in most digital cameras.

In addition to generating the highest resolution of any digital SLR available, the new sensor eliminates the unwanted cropping factor that occurs when SLR lenses are used with smaller sensors. These sensors reduce some of the performance of wide-angle lenses; for example, a 28mm wide-angle lens captures less of a field of view than it normally would. Full-frame sensors have no cropping factor; they behave just as they would in a camera using 35mm film. This enables a 28mm lens to cover the entire field of view.

To learn more about these breakthroughs, please visit http://www.kodak.com/go/dcs or http://www.kodak.com/go/research