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This is likely being done for business reasons rather than technical reasons. It would prevent the use of any "legacy glass" which a lot of medium-format shoote

This is likely being done for business reasons rather than technical reasons. It would prevent the use of any "legacy glass" which a lot of medium-format shooters have been collecting over the decades. One would have to buy an entirely new lens collection at the cost of many thousands of dollars.

csharptwdec19 6y ago
I think it's still more technical than business... corners have been an issue for many cameras (especially digital) and curvature is one way to solve that problem. In fact this tends to be -more- of a problem using Legacy glass on Mirrorless systems today. I also doubt it will prevent the use of 'legacy glass'. If there's one thing my experience with Sony mounts has taught me, -somebody- will make an adapter. Yes, it may involve another element or two in the path to rectify. But I would be -shocked- if Sony didn't have a path here; a decent amount of e-mount adoption has been thanks to the adaptability of the system, and my guess is they can easily price this in a product where they can make money without worrying about attach rate (how many lenses the consumer buys).
- rodgerd 6y ago
  Exactly. A tremendous amount of the complexity of lens design - and hence the size of the lens and quality of the output - is in the need to flatten the image across the recording medium without creating excessive distortion. Seeing it in terms of a sales of is the kind of garbage hot take I'd expect from people knowing nothing about photography. As far as using legacy glass: Sony don't have medium format glass. At all. They've never built a medium format camera under their own name, and Minolta last made medium format in the 60s. Again, the grandparent hot take, and the upvotes, are coming from people who know zero about photography. Either Sony are going to get into the medium format market for the first time (which seems unlikely to me, but you never know), or this is a sensor design for one or more of their MF customers (i.e. all the remaining medium format manufacturers - Hassleblad, Phase One, Pentax, and Fujifilm). I'd expect that if it's the latter there will either be adapters, or electronic compensation.
  - michrassena 6y ago
    The reference to legacy glass isn't to Sony legacy glass, but to the likes of Mamiya, Hasselblad, Pentax, Pentacon and others. A tremendous variety of adapters are available to adapt almost every removable mount lens format to the Sony E mount for their APS-c and full frame sensors. A curved image plane is more associated with box cameras like the Ansco Pioneer or with pinhole cameras, to either reduce curvature of field or vignetting. Most likely the curved sensor will reduce the complexity of the lens since it removes the necessity of creating a flat field. It's certainly possible that Sony won't make their own camera, but will instead sell sensors to other manufacturers just as they do with APS-c sensors.
cma 6y ago
There are good technical reasons for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petzval_field_curvature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petzval_field_curvature
donor20 6y ago
This type of comment is literally on every post about any business on HN :) Someone was just explaining to me that the reason apple did M1 chips was so they could bake DRAM on to make it hard to upgrade DRAM on the macbook air. Ignore that Apple could have blocked that in a lot of much more inexpensive ways. If sony wants to prevent legacy glass, they can do a little verifier chip in glass (that they don't actually make BTW) just like HP does with ink cartridges etc. They don't need to design a curved sensor to lock out stuff if they wanted (I don't see why they would care, they sell sensors not glass).
- porphyra 6y ago
  Not to mention that * Sony opens their E mount design to third party lens makers like Tamron, Tokina, Cosina, Sigma, etc * Sony makes an adapter to mount legacy A-mount lenses More lenses is a great plus when it comes to selling cameras.
- Cpoll 6y ago
  > If sony wants to prevent legacy glass, they can do a little verifier chip in glass (that they don't actually make BTW) just like HP does with ink cartridges etc. Not that I don't agree with you in general, but that seems like a great way to tank sales and burn good-will. HP can get away with it because people don't do research and might actually believe that it's to protect the printer (or whatever). People that are buying thousand dollar cameras might be less amused.

csharptwdec19 6y ago

I think it's still more technical than business... corners have been an issue for many cameras (especially digital) and curvature is one way to solve that problem. In fact this tends to be -more- of a problem using Legacy glass on Mirrorless systems today. I also doubt it will prevent the use of 'legacy glass'. If there's one thing my experience with Sony mounts has taught me, -somebody- will make an adapter. Yes, it may involve another element or two in the path to rectify. But I would be -shocked- if Sony didn't have a path here; a decent amount of e-mount adoption has been thanks to the adaptability of the system, and my guess is they can easily price this in a product where they can make money without worrying about attach rate (how many lenses the consumer buys).

rodgerd 6y ago
Exactly. A tremendous amount of the complexity of lens design - and hence the size of the lens and quality of the output - is in the need to flatten the image across the recording medium without creating excessive distortion. Seeing it in terms of a sales of is the kind of garbage hot take I'd expect from people knowing nothing about photography. As far as using legacy glass: Sony don't have medium format glass. At all. They've never built a medium format camera under their own name, and Minolta last made medium format in the 60s. Again, the grandparent hot take, and the upvotes, are coming from people who know zero about photography. Either Sony are going to get into the medium format market for the first time (which seems unlikely to me, but you never know), or this is a sensor design for one or more of their MF customers (i.e. all the remaining medium format manufacturers - Hassleblad, Phase One, Pentax, and Fujifilm). I'd expect that if it's the latter there will either be adapters, or electronic compensation.
- michrassena 6y ago
  The reference to legacy glass isn't to Sony legacy glass, but to the likes of Mamiya, Hasselblad, Pentax, Pentacon and others. A tremendous variety of adapters are available to adapt almost every removable mount lens format to the Sony E mount for their APS-c and full frame sensors. A curved image plane is more associated with box cameras like the Ansco Pioneer or with pinhole cameras, to either reduce curvature of field or vignetting. Most likely the curved sensor will reduce the complexity of the lens since it removes the necessity of creating a flat field. It's certainly possible that Sony won't make their own camera, but will instead sell sensors to other manufacturers just as they do with APS-c sensors.

cma 6y ago

There are good technical reasons for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petzval_field_curvature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petzval_field_curvature

donor20 6y ago

This type of comment is literally on every post about any business on HN :) Someone was just explaining to me that the reason apple did M1 chips was so they could bake DRAM on to make it hard to upgrade DRAM on the macbook air. Ignore that Apple could have blocked that in a lot of much more inexpensive ways. If sony wants to prevent legacy glass, they can do a little verifier chip in glass (that they don't actually make BTW) just like HP does with ink cartridges etc. They don't need to design a curved sensor to lock out stuff if they wanted (I don't see why they would care, they sell sensors not glass).

porphyra 6y ago
Not to mention that * Sony opens their E mount design to third party lens makers like Tamron, Tokina, Cosina, Sigma, etc * Sony makes an adapter to mount legacy A-mount lenses More lenses is a great plus when it comes to selling cameras.
Cpoll 6y ago
> If sony wants to prevent legacy glass, they can do a little verifier chip in glass (that they don't actually make BTW) just like HP does with ink cartridges etc. Not that I don't agree with you in general, but that seems like a great way to tank sales and burn good-will. HP can get away with it because people don't do research and might actually believe that it's to protect the printer (or whatever). People that are buying thousand dollar cameras might be less amused.