CCD Size of Z1 - I am finally confused :-/

[Peter Rixner]

Hello :)

I really need to know the TRUE size of the Z1's CCD.
Seems impossible to me to get good information on that.

I alway thought we have a 1/3" CCD (=0,85mm)
I experimented and found 0,53mm that way.
That couldn't be true, so I was looking for information on the web.
But found nothing better.

My last try to look in the manual: 1/4" CCD ... what ?!?
OK ... that lets my 0,53mm be mor true, but why is everyone saving it's 1/3" ?!? Simply wrong ?

Anyway what is the exact truth ?
I need to know for Motion-Tracking-Reasons, where the calculation of focal lenght is very important to me.

So any ideas on that all ?

Thanks for every help!

Peter

[Armin Obersteiner]

As far as I've heard there are 3x 960x1080 square pixel ccd chips in this camera. With pixel shift 1440x1080 a non square pixel picture is calculated and viewed in anamorph 1920x1080 on your computer/hdtv.

[Armin Obersteiner]

Sorry. The real info is that it's technical maximum is: 5.8 x 6.0 mm. But it's not uncommon, that the larger side is no longer than 4.8mm. On a non square CCD, with a loger side of 4.8mm the shorter side would be 3.6mm (4:3). A sony representative should know the exact number...

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Peter Rixner

I alway thought we have a 1/3" CCD (=0,85mm)

While this seems logical (1"=25.4mm so 25.4/3=8.47), it's not the way CCD's are measured. This article doesn't get into sizes of native 16:9 CCD's like the Z1, but it does explain why a 1/3" CCD isn't really 1/3":

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0210/02...ensorsizes.asp

Originally Posted by Peter Rixner

My last try to look in the manual: 1/4" CCD ... what ?!?

What manual were you looking in? My manual says "Image Device: 6mm (1/3 type) 3CCD (Charge Coupled Device)". Now of course that is a diagonal measurement of the CCD.

This link appeared in an old thread here, and it appears to say that the Z1 CCD's are 5.45 x 2.725 mm. This sounds right to me, remembering my Pythagorean Theorum - the square root of 5.45 squared plus 2.725 squared is 6.09mm :-)

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babel...%2f04-0907a%2f

[Peter Rixner]

Thank You Armin and Boyd,

That sounds all very good to me. Especially the 5.45mm, that are close to my first tests that where 5.3.

After some new ideas for test by a friend of mine, we did a new test and measured several sizes from 5 to 5.5. Which of course are errors in the test setup. So all in all I'd say 5.4 is the thing. Thanks again.

And let's forget about the manual info. It was simply the wrong one. Maybe sony shouldn't make all camcorder manuals look the same on the book cover :)))

If someone has further information about all that. I am still interessted.

Thanks!

Peter

[Steven White]

I've heard there are 3x 960x1080 square pixel ccd chips in this camera. With pixel shift 1440x1080 a non square pixel picture

Not quite...
the CCDs are 960x1080, but the pixels aren't square, they're rectangular with an aspect ratio of 2:1. 1/2 pixel shift is used.

-Steve

[Armin Obersteiner]

You are right. I mixed it up.