Fairchild has introduced a new MFT sensor that could be of particular interest for digital Cinema cameras. As a background it should be mentioned that Fairchild developed the S35 sensor for URSA Mini 4.6K with Blackmagic. Otherwise, almost the entire camera market is now largely served by Sony. The last Blackmagic Cinema Camera 4K is also based on a Sony sensor, but it has a special design. Thus each sensor at Sony consists of 4 subsensors, which are read out for higher dynamics with different times.
However, the Fairchild sensor is rather a classic sensor design, which (like ARRI sensors) is read with two sensitivities (2 x 11 bit), which are then mixed to a 16 bit signal.
As a BSI sensor, it is exposed from the rear and is therefore likely to be quite light-sensitive. With an active width of 20mm, it also lies in the image circle of MicroFourThirds with very cinemascopic aspect ratios and allows horizontal crop factors up to 1.8.
In addition, it is to be readable in 4K at up to 120 fps. In the FullHD window it even achieves 240 fps. In addition, the data sheet promises 87dB dynamics, which corresponds to 14.5 f-stops. For a 4K MicroFourThirds sensor this would be quite a remarkable value. And that's not all: In addition to rolling shutter, the sensor should also be capable of a readout procedure called "Global Reset," which strongly "smells" like global shutter.
In short, according to the data sheet, this sensor is likely to be by far the most interesting MFT sensor for scenic film applications. But who is going to install it? Panasonic and Olympus are in the process of switching to larger sensor classes and the other usual suspects such as Sony, Canon or FUJI have never been active in this sensor class. Also companies like RED or Kinefinity seem to finally leave Sub35mm formats behind, as there is no money to be earned with small quantities. Current CashCows are currently still Panasonic with the GH5(s) and Blackmagics Pocket Camera 4K.
To us, the Fairchild sensor looks like it was ordered by Blackmagic and not picked up, because it was finished too late. Or could the Sony sensor have been just a placeholder and we will see a second Blackmagic Cinema-Camera 4K very soon? With 120 fps@4K, 14.5 f-stops and global shutter? It wouldn't be the first time that Blackmagic pulls a completely new model out of its sleeve before the waiting list for the current model has been processed...
