[*Rich]

Anyone know who manufactures the CMOS sensor used in the Pentax K-1? Is it Sony?

One source I read said this sensor is not similar to any other full-frame sensor presently on the market. Thanks.

[bertwert]

Sony sensor.

[kenspo]

It is the same sensor as in D810. But it has been rebuild and tweaked the pentax way.

[vonBaloney]

Which is the same sensor from the Sony a7r, or are those different? Has it actually been confirmed what it is?

[monochrome]

It is the same sensor as in D810. But it has been rebuild and tweaked the pentax way.

I have no reason to doubt you - Nikon reportedly has a custom sensor in the D810 - but for Sony and Ricoh to come to an agreement for a custom sensor either 1) the sensor is where Ricoh spent it's money, which might explain the little missing bits the trolls are obsessing on; or 2) Ricoh expects to sell one very large boatload of these sensors in K-1's (possibly over a long term in many models, such as with the 16Mp APSc sensor); or both.

In any event, I expect people to be surprised by the IQ. I anticipate with glee all the grudgingly positive reviews the images will get before the reviewers move on to criticizing USB2.0, the video and whatever else is not-industry-standard.

[kenspo]

What i have, is a pre-product, but i can already see that this sensor is *********** amazing!!! Thats all i care about hehe..

Have tested the K-1 with 31 and 77 LTD + 100 macro, 200 and 300..And of course 24-70..Im in love <3

And the layout of the new/extra buttons? Just incredible!!!! Now that i've tested it, it is so brilliant, you just have to laugh.

[JinDesu]

What i have, is a pre-product, but i can already see that this sensor is *********** amazing!!! Thats all i care about hehe..

Have tested the K-1 with 31 and 77 LTD + 100 macro, 200 and 300..And of course 24-70..Im in love <3

And the layout of the new/extra buttons? Just incredible!!!! Now that i've tested it, it is so brilliant, you just have to laugh.

Ken, I'm glad they've got you on board as a Pentax/Ricoh ambassador , your enthusiasm is fantastic!

[kenspo]

Hehe..thank you Im easy to please..Ricoh treats me like a rockstar..haha..But i say stuff like it is, not the "correct" thing just to sell more. If I'm not happy with anything, i will say it. There are some minor issues with K-1, but there are so much awesome stuff on it, that i can forgive those hehe

[aleonx3]

What i have, is a pre-product, but i can already see that this sensor is *********** amazing!!! Thats all i care about hehe..

Have tested the K-1 with 31 and 77 LTD + 100 macro, 200 and 300..And of course 24-70..Im in love <3

And the layout of the new/extra buttons? Just incredible!!!! Now that i've tested it, it is so brilliant, you just have to laugh.

I have no doubt about the ergonomics of the camera (from my experience with k-7/k-5/k-3), it is also exciting to hear that the sensor performs quite well even comparing to D810. One more reason to get one just to try my 31/43/77 lenses. It will even be better if the DA 20-40 ltd also works well even in crop mode.

[kenspo]

I have no doubt about the ergonomics of the camera (from my experience with k-7/k-5/k-3), it is also exciting to hear that the sensor performs quite well even comparing to D810. One more reason to get one just to try my 31/43/77 lenses. It will even be better if the DA 20-40 ltd also works well even in crop mode.

With those two new wheels on top, you can switch between FF and Crop in fraction of a second

[*Rich]

Looking forward to DXOMARKS's eval of the sensor, but that may be a few months coming. So far they are saying:

"Built around a newly-developed 35mm-format full-frame 36.4Mp CMOS sensor with the optical anti-aliasing filter removed, the new Pentax K-1 looks equipped to deliver high-end image quality." ~Paul Carol, DXOMARK, 2/19/16

[RGlasel]

I have no reason to doubt you - Nikon reportedly has a custom sensor in the D810 - but for Sony and Ricoh to come to an agreement for a custom sensor either 1) the sensor is where Ricoh spent it's money, which might explain the little missing bits the trolls are obsessing on; or 2) Ricoh expects to sell one very large boatload of these sensors in K-1's (possibly over a long term in many models, such as with the 16Mp APSc sensor); or both.

In any event, I expect people to be surprised by the IQ. I anticipate with glee all the grudgingly positive reviews the images will get before the reviewers move on to criticizing USB2.0, the video and whatever else is not-industry-standard.

I wholeheartedly agree with the bolded, but I would disagree that getting different performance out of the same processor as the D810 uses can only come at a high cost to Ricoh.

A little knowledge may a bad thing, but I happen to have a little knowledge of digital circuitry, so here I go, for bad or good. The output of the same sensor assembly can be tweaked or customized by changing instructions for the processor that reads the sensor. It isn't a one-way process, the bias voltage applied to photo-detectors can changed, active reset of photo-detectors implemented, the sampling rate changed and tolerances adjusted for digitizing the analog output of photo-detectors. Even if Sony only provides a static interface to its sensors, Sony's engineers can modify the embedded programming to suit different customers. It doesn't require different dies or x-ray masks; depending on the type of embedded processor(s) used, the programming can be changed for every processor that gets connected to a sensor on the assembly line without requiring tooling or process changes.

You could ask why Sony can't necessarily get the same results out of a particular sensor that other camera manufacturers use; I'm sure it comes down to what final performance characteristics are deemed to be most important and how engineers think they can exploit the observed physical characteristics of the sensor to get the performance they are looking for. Nikon's engineers probably have different objectives and different experiences with Sony sensors than Pentax engineers do. To me, it's a strange process, for better quality control they are trying to eliminate any variability in how a particular sub-system works and to differentiate the finished product they are trying to find a "recipe" that takes advantage of variability in that sub-system.

[rawr]

IMX094APQ is the model number for the Sony-made D800 sensor. And according to the Sony sensor division web site, today they are only selling one 36MP FF sensor, and it's still the IMX094 model. So I bet that somewhere in the K-1 tech docs or service manuals there is a reference to IMX094.

[kenspo]

But still..it has been rebuild and tweaked better, so it will deliver better

[*Rich]

You could ask why Sony can't necessarily get the same results out of a particular sensor that other camera manufacturers use; I'm sure it comes down to what final performance characteristics are deemed to be most important and how engineers think they can exploit the observed physical characteristics of the sensor to get the performance they are looking for. Nikon's engineers probably have different objectives and different experiences with Sony sensors than Pentax engineers do. To me, it's a strange process, for better quality control they are trying to eliminate any variability in how a particular sub-system works and to differentiate the finished product they are trying to find a "recipe" that takes advantage of variability in that sub-system.

So it sounds like the final sensor performance will depend on what the Pentax engineers deem most important for the K-1. In the past, mixed results have occurred with Pentax's implementation of Sony sensors.

The APS-C 16.x Mp sensor performance was superior in the various K-5 models relative to other manufacturer's adaptation. But apparently not so with the APS-C 24.x Mp sensor, where the K-3 models' sensor adaptation fell a bit short in color depth performance and dynamic range relative to Nikon's and Sony's implementations (as per Dxomark).

Regardless, going to a full-frame sensor is going to be a big improvement over the earlier APS-C cameras. Just how big an improvement will soon become evident.