Canon News has uncovered another Quad Pixel Autofocus (QPAF) sensor patent.
Canon News breaks down why QPAF should be coming in the future.
Right now with dual pixel AF (DPAF) sensors, you can focus reliably while the camera is in the horizontal position and your edge of contrast that you are locking on are vertical. If the edge is horizontal (or parallel to the camera orientation) then it has extreme difficulty in locking on. This is because all the pixels are arranged in one direction for dual pixel AF. What Canon needs is a quad pixel, where the pixel is split up, not once but twice, allowing for different phase different arrangements.
This patent application specifically deals with suppressing the deterioration that may happen with extremely accurate focus detection.
Just keep in mind that the IQ and dynamic range will be affected by the increased circuitry on the sensor if that circuitry blocks more of the total light sensed by the sensor. And more false artifacts will occur if the Bayer decoding shifts from 4 cells (RGBG) to 16 cells(RRRRGGGGBBBBGGGG) - but I don't think the marketing department will mention that! ;)
You know, at some point there's going to be so much circuitry and high resolution that I can see Canon finally coming out with a BSI (back-side illuminated) version of their sensors. That's really the only way to keep getting more complexity and resolution and image quality in a FF sensor as you approach the limits of what a non-BSI sensor can do. We may be seeing Canon's first BSI introduction, which would be quite an announcement in itself! Do I think this will happen in the R1? - No, but it sure wouldn't surprise me. And if they want to get a 45M QP sensor and beyond then I think they may be forced to use BSI in the future.
Well, when Canon announces the new R1 sensor as a 21 megapixel quad-pixel back-side illuminated global shutter full-frame CMOS sensor...
We'll have *all* the sensor adjectives. All of them.
They could also arrange pixels horizontally and vertically in alternate order. There are plenty of pixels to work with, half of them could be sensitive to vertical lines only.
this could potentially used as a quad gain output for more dynamic range Just like how the dual gain output works with the current dual pixel sensor where one side has half the gain. With 4 sub-pixels, you can potentially have 4 different gains that get combined into one pixel with significantly more captured DR.
From CanonNews ( Japan Patent Application 2017-228829):
1. I will wait for R5 Mk II (at least) :D
2. Canon is doomed! :ROFLMAO:
I think there's even a GREATER chance we'll just see the 20MP 1DX Mark III sensor again.
Keep DPAF, but make the microlenses so they split each pixel at a 45º angle.
Problem solved.
... do do we start talking about megadots (like for EVFs) now instead of subpixels?
Yeah...it kinda sounds like pirates that love disco.
Then again, it kinda worked in 1982: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084504/
:p
I would not expect it in a flagship hybrid mirrorless but I could see it in a flagship cinema camera.