(SR5) UPDATED: you cannot use the full potential of Sony’s new 60, 54 and 36MP FF 8K sensors without the proprietary SLVS-EC interface

The past week I shared the specs of three new Sony 8K sensors. All these will be available for third-party companies too. But there is one very important aspect we learned now from our sources:

UPDATED: The full sensor power can only be used if the companies buy the proprietary Sony SLVS-EC interface too. Without it you CANNOT have the full sensor potential. Sources told me that it is highly unlikely that companies like Nikon and Panasonic will suddenly start to use Sony SLVS-EC interface. A source told me this:

To use the full potential of a Sony sensor, the proprietary SLVS-EC interface must be used. SLVS-EC interface offers much bigger throughput and bandwidth than traditional sub-LVDS interface. Usually SLVS-EC allows 16bit ADC and much higher framerate at a given readout resolution. SLVS-EC interface costs significantly more than sub-LVDS.

This new info makes it more likely that these sensors will indeed be used by future Sony cameras like the A7sIII or A9II or A9r. And Nikon/Panasonic will probably use the same sensors but with some crippled features.