Two Sources sent me this graph. As a reminder: The IMX251 and IMX309 are existing sensors. The yet to be announced sensors are:
Source 1 told me this:
IMX455 is electricity saving type Affordable price CMOS, half power of IMX251. Perhaps it target in third party market.
IMX511 order better Dynamic Range (20/6)Log10(52000/1.762)≈14.9EV, (IMX455~14.4EV), but watse more power. It’s unfriendly to the third party camera manufacturers which wanna make a High resolution camera without high speed. Also, IMX551 may is not for sell.
IMX435 STARVIS use Hecx Native Conversion Gain to Produce more SNR in Dark Scene:
(ISO 15 ~ 17.5EV/ISO 100 ~ 15.4EV/…/ISO 409600 ~ 6.9EV)
If readout all Conversion Gain, the Landscape can be extended to 120dB, like the high SNR sensor sony displayed on IEDM 2018. But IMX435 seems impossible to do this. It’s not a still picture style sensor.
Source 2 told me this:
“The star of the show IMX435 sensor has 6 native sensitivities (from base to top as seen in the table):
ISO50 = Conversion Gain -18dB, EI +12dB, DR 17.4EV
ISO200 = Conversion Gain 0dB, EI +6dB, DR 15.4EV
ISO800 = Conversion Gain +18dB, EI 0dB, DR 13.4EV
ISO12800 = Conversion Gain +36dB, EI +6dB
ISO102400 = Conversion Gain +54dB, EI +6dB
ISO1638.4K = Conversion Gain +72dB, EI +24dB
Its full well capacity at base is particularly impressive at 605k e-, A7SII sensor IMX235 is “only” 159K e- with much bigger photosite. This again highlights the power of Exmor RS.”
To be clear:
1) These sensors are open to be used by third companies too
2) To use the full potential you need to buy the rights to use the Sony proprietary SLVS-EC interface
3) Don’t expect these sensors to be used with their full potential on small compact mirrorless cameras. Camcorders are likely to use them first (bigger more powerful processor and bigger ventilation system)
My guess is that future Sony Alpha cameras will use “variations” of these sensors.
