Dpreview published an interview with Sandor Barna (Vice President and General Manager at Aptina) where he discussed the future of compact cameras and big sensors. He mentioned that Aptina is working with “their current customers” (Nikon?) and new compact cameras with 1″ sensor are expected to be announced at the beginning of next year:
“For Aptina this trend represents an opportunity to expand – not just with 1″ sensors but right up to APS-C. We’ve had a lot of interest. In terms of 1″, we’ve been working closely with our current customer base and have been having interest beyond the customer currently using them – we expect to see cameras announced at the beginning of next year.”
Nikon is currently using Aptina sensors in (all?) Nikon 1 cameras.
In the past few months Aptina announced a new 14MP 4k 1″ sensor and a full frame CMOS sensor for DSLR cameras.
Coincidentally, just few days ago Nikon officially raised their concern about the shrinking compact digital camera market (see also this article). Maybe their solution for the future is similar to Barna’s vision – compact cameras with larger sensors.
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Nikon will announce new compact cameras with 1″ sensor in the near future (something similar to the very popular Sony RX100).
