Nikon filed a patent in Japan for interchangeable sensor solution in mirrorless cameras. According to the patent application, the interchangeable sensors will have different AF system, speed (fps) and pixel count in order to suite different shooting preferences:
| AF | Rate | Image quality | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contrast AF | Slow | Good | All pixels and therefore can be used for image output quality |
| Phase difference AF (center point, etc.) | Fast | Normal | AF phase is very small because the pixel is used, less quality degradation |
| Phase difference AF (sensors, etc. Cross) | Fast | Bad | AF phase for a number of pixels used, interpolation is required and can lead to lower quality |
Just few weeks ago Nikon filed another patent for an interchangeable sensor with more connection details:
Recently Olympus filed a patent for a modular DSLR camera.
Nikon patent details:
- Patent Publication: 2010-283651
- Release date: December 16th, 2010
- Filing date: May 6th, 2009
Juts a reminder that not all patent applications get implemented in real cameras.
