I usually do not report on speculation from the Dpreview forums, but this one is interesting and I think it is worth mentioning here – the upcoming Nikon Z9 camera sensor could be produced by Tower Semiconductor (former TowerJazz) and not by Sony. Both threads on Dpreview are very long (see here and here) – here are the main points:
- Nikon Z50 and D7500 could already deploy sensors fabbed by Tower Semiconductor
- Nikon and Tower Semiconductor signed a $150M equipment supply agreement in February 2021
- Nikon announced the development of a new 1-inch 17.84MP stacked CMOS 4k 1000 fps sensor
- TowerSemiconductor/TowerJazz also believes that Nikon should not count on Sony’s sensors – see the 8-minute mark of this video (“He sees a problem in the fact that Sony is also a camera market. So for example if there is competition on the supply Sony may give themselves the benefit instead of Nikon“)
- See also Thom Hogan’s article on this topic
Here is a quote from the original Dpreview forum post:
“Because of these recent, contemporaneous developments, it seems reasonable to conclude that the Z9 will not be an “also ran” mirrorless camera, but a “better than,” new-level offering. It appears Nikon is making a paradigm shift for its future, developing its own sensors completely, utilizing its own innovations, rather than “personalizing” existing Sony sensor design offerings.
While all of this is speculation at this point, admittedly, the evidence does seem to be funneling in this direction. Therefore, the Z9 will quite possibly be another benchmark for Nikon, in a whole new way. If the facts ultimately pan out as speculated, then the advent of the Z9 should be exciting for those utilizing other brands as well.”
