kingmouf

So maybe it would be possible that in a few weeks or months time, we will see Canon posting a service note and state that if you take your camera to an authorized service center, they can perform "an upgrade" for x amount of money so that such limitations may be lifted. It would be similar to the updates we have seen in other cameras (or was it Canon itself as well?) that you paid an amount of money to have a feature upgrade such as support for an specific codec. So when Canon eventually drops the price of the camera, voila! it will be able to charge the same amount! To be honest though, in the electronics industry things like this happen ALL the time. Firmware is the closest possible piece of software, so things do get tricky there and a lot of products with practically the same hardware have only changes in firmware. If Canon has done this thing here, I guess it got a little bit more clumpsy than the majority of the industry. On the other hand, I think that Canon could be playing a very caution game here. Initial production of sensors and chipsets could very well be prone to overheating issues and maybe production is not stable enough to ensure a proper supply of chips of specific capabilities, meaning that Canon for safety went for the lowest denominator. After all, with the kind of clientelle that Canon has, dependability and reliability are top priorities. As such, Canon went with the safest solution and maybe eventual firmware updates will provide the time required to iron out more proper ways to measure temps and apply safety algorithms. Just saying.

I think that at least the last part of the article is super enthousiastic to the limits of sentimental. First of all, while a sensor is typically a chip, it is not the same process as the one used for microprocessors. As such do not expect to see the same processes and especially make such comparisons. On the other hand, even if someone were to make an analogy, 180nm is Pentium 4 era (that is 2000 to 2008) and 65nm is Core 2 era (2006 - 2011). I have to stress again though that this does not compare!! The processes are different and sensors have a lot of analogue stuff that are not in microprocessors. Furthermore, Samsung is just scratching the surface of 7nm production. I am pretty sure that 7nm is not HVM (High Volume Manufacturing) yet and 5/4nm is at research level. Again though we need to stress that these processes are NOT for sensors but for purely digital circuits. Mixed processes are a few nodes back. Another thing that we need to understand is that Samsung is actually a conglomerate of several companies. One of them is Samsung LSI that makes chips and this part of the company could very well produce sensors for the needs of others (i.e. under contract) or as merchant chips. Therefore having a sensor does not mean that Samsung will return to the camera business (which again is not accurate since Samsung is actually in that business as a result of its phones and stuff). We also need to understand that FujiFilm apart from its camera division, it is one of the largest companies in the world for material and things like that. The fact that they have collaborated with Samsung is no different from the fact that they have collaborated with Panasonic again for sensors, etc. So while there may be a connection, an order or a technology transfer, it is equally probable that this is business as usual and not an indication that the next sensor in a Fuji camera will be from Samsung.