Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

[Ross the fiddler]

So, the rumours are out stating that Olympus President Sasa confessed the Olympus E-M5 sensor has been made by Sony.

Well, that would explain why it is so good (giving Sony the credit for their sensors, not cameras).

Lets hear your comments.

[son of sid]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

As long as it did it's job and I liked the results, i wouldn't really care who made it.

Sid

[George Dorn]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Well it's what you do with it that matters... The supply of tv screen components is dominated by a few major suppliers too. If Olympus have sourced their sensor from another supplier more efficiently, why not? (Are Sony and Olympus in the same konzern perhaps?).

This will give some gear heads the opportunity to pass a few negative comments about Olympus, I suppose, but then if I was interested in that sort of thing, I'd have a Canon ()

[StephenL]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Most of the bits in most cameras have been sourced from various suppliers. I'm delighted with the performance of the sensor in the E-M5, and all credit to Olympus for writing the firmware which controls it, but I really do not give two hoots who made it.

[Zuiko]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

It's been pretty much certain for some time that it wasn't made by Panasonic, so Sony were favourites. I can't understand why all the secrecy, but then again I can't understand why it should matter either. I don't drive around in my Volkswagen fretting about who made the engine management system. I rate this issue as mildly intriguing but of little importance.

[OlyPaul]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Stephen may not but I do if only to be proven right.

I know most things I post here are mostly forgot or ignored but it's nice to be right sometimes.

I posted this on the FTU site in January.

I also believe the Panasonic sensor is not as good as their currant rivals sensors, I really believe if there were a Sony 4/3 's sensor with Nikons know how, all the nit picking about noise and image quality would go away.

To which Ian replied

I will eat my hat if the new OM Digital (as suggested in the teaser ads) has anything other than a Panasonic-made LiveMOS sensor.


Ian

Now I just need to know which hat Ian is going to eat.

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

It's not much different to when people would ask "What film was that shot on?"

It can be of interest in seeing (or speculating on) the differences in the final results. However as there is so much that is dependant on the processing engine (equivalent of the film development), we can again debate endlessly the combinations in the elements that make up the process.

All part of the fun

[Greytop]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

I agree with Graham, it's the whole package that counts. Olympus always seem to be able to extract every last drop and more from whichever sensor they use.
This package performs very well indeed and if it happens to be a Sony sensor I've no issue with it either way

[JonSchick]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Olympus wouldn't be the first to tweak the most out of a Sony sensor - it's something Pentax have been doing for years. Their K100D got the best results of any camera using the Sony 6MP sensor, and the K-5/K-01 both extract more than Sony (and arguably Nikon) can do from the more modern offerings.

I'm not terribly bothered to be honest, as long as the end results are good. Although I do obtain some satisfaction that my Skoda shares a few components with Audi

[snaarman]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Ah. That explains a lot.

When I zoom in to my E-M5 raw files, I see there is a tiny little "s" in the corner of each pixel.

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Ah. That explains a lot.

When I zoom in to my E-M5 raw files, I see there is a tiny little "s" in the corner of each pixel.

Yeah, I like that one.

[StephenL]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Ah. That explains a lot.

When I zoom in to my E-M5 raw files, I see there is a tiny little "s" in the corner of each pixel.

That's not an "S". It's a "5", as in E-M5.

When I had Canon DSLRs they just had a speck of dirt in the corner of each pixel ....

[Wreckdiver]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

It would be nice to see this sensor fitted into the next FT body (E-7?). Add Full HD and I would be in the market for one.

Steve

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

It would be nice to see this sensor fitted into the next FT body (E-7?). Add Full HD and I would be in the market for one.

Steve

Maybe when they've sold enough E-M5's then they sell you an E7.

[dko22]

Re: Sony made the sensor for the E-M5?

Over on the BIG forum one or two denialists still seem to be ignoring the fact that, even with the clumsy translation, Sony and E-M5 do appear to be in the same sentence. But this statement was later confirmed in a press conference and folk who actually know Japanese (because basically they were Japanese) confirmed that this is what was meant.

Although I also don't really care who made the sensor, the incredible amount of speculation meant the issue was difficult to ignore. And personally I was always rather sceptical that it was a Panasonic sensor quite simply because why would they give Olympus a significantly better sensor than even the GH2 -- I mean the highlight treatment in particular is in a totally different class. I think the whole thing's good for m43 to be honest becuase either Panny will have to up its game or also use a Sony sensor which would be quite hard I think! And, of course, it means that almost certainly that for loyalists to the mirrored variety, the E7 should get the sensor the system has deserved for some time.

David