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Comment by brcmthrowaway

2 days ago

Pixel camera hardware or software? Isnt there only one vendor for sensors - Sony?

Samsung also makes sensors for phones. IIRC some Pixels use their sensors.

  • I think Canon makes at least some of their sensors, and Nikon designs theirs and makes it at a third party I forget the name of that isn't Sony or Samsung but they still do use Sony stuff in a lot of their cameras.

    I don't know about Pentax, Panasonic or OMD (formerly Olympus)

    • I think folks here have some idea how expensive chip fabs are. That's why only Canon is able to make their own sensors.

      Sony makes sensors for pretty much everyone else. But it's well known that other folks e.g. Nikon have been able to get better signal-to-noise with Sony-made sensors than Sony themselves. I think Panasonic used to make their own sensors but with some recent re-org, that got spun out.

      It's been widely rumored that Leica uses Sony sensors, but this gets repeatedly denied by people claiming inside information. We know that Leica was getting 24MP CMOS sensors from CMOSIS in the 2012 timeframe, but CMOSIS has since been acquired by OSRAM, and there hasn't been any verifiable information since then, whether confirming or denying a continued business relationship.

He worked mostly on the software side, but of course had important input into what sensors and processors were chosen for the phones.