New Fuji Super CCD EXR (Fuji's Super-Foveon?)

As we mentioned a few days ago, Fuji is announcing new SuperCCD technology at Photokina. The new "Super CCD EXR" promises advances in the design that can boost dynamic range among other things.

Fuji's motivation behind this is to attempt to move beyond "just megapixels" and work to improve noise performance and dynamic range, by blending their old "SR" and "HR" sensors into the new "EXR" sensor design. Note the diagram below:

The diagonal two-pixel pairs are the new SuperCCD DNA so to speak. The difference between the new EXR and the old SR is that the pixel pairs are of equal size, unlike the SR sensors, with its smaller R-pixels which were responsible for dynamic range.

The new buzzwords are "Dual Capture" for the promised dynamic range improvements, and "Pixel Fusion" for the noise improvement. One thing that reads a little bit strange is this line:

...it actually performs as well as previous 12-megapixel Super CCD sensors due to the new filter and photodiode design

While the text says that we will see this in the future Fuji line-up, it is not clear what sensor sizes we will see. The mention of 12-megapixels is not deterministic, since the S5 Pro was using a 6+6 = 12mp SuperCCD, although the F100fd/F50fd are prominently mentioned.

And we close with a big bold promise from Fuji at the end of the press release. Here at the Noisy Factor we remember these promises and hold them accountable when they do not deliver. Because we are looking out for you ;-)

Fujifilm looks forward with excitement to introducing this sensor into its range of high quality cameras, and expects enthusiasts to see a quantum leap in image quality from anything they have seen before.

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