New Sony Cyber-shot to Come With Back-illuminated CMOS Sensor

Aug 7, 2009 21:10 Hideyoshi Kume, Nikkei Electronics

Sony Corp announced the "Cyber-shot DSC-WX1" and "Cyber-shot DSC-TX1," digital cameras equipped with its back-illuminated CMOS sensor, "Exmor R," Aug 6, 2009.

The effective pixel count of the 1/2.4-inch CMOS sensor is about 10.6 million. The release dates of the DSC-WX1 and DSC-TX1 are Sept 18 and 4, 2009, respectively. There are no manufacturer's suggested retail prices, but they are expected to be sold at about ¥40,000 (approx US$420) and 43,000, respectively.

They are the first compact digital cameras that come with the Exmor R. Because the new cameras can effectively let in light, they have about twice as high a sensitivity as Sony's existing products. So far, the Exmor R has been equipped only in the "HDR-XR500V" and "HDR-XR520V," the company's digital video cameras released in February 2009.

The new cameras enable to take bright pictures without using a flash even in a dark room because of the "hand-held night view mode," which creates a picture by precisely aligning and superimposing six pictures continuously taken in a dark place, Sony said.

The DSC-WX1 features the company's "G Lens," a maximum aperture of 2.4 to 5.6, a wide angle of 24mm, a 5x optical zoom, an ISO sensitivity of 160 to 3,200 and a 0.23-Mpixel 2.7-inch TFT LCD panel. It measures 90.5 (W) x 51.8 (H) x 19.8mm (D) (excluding protrusions) and weighs about 120g.

The DSC-TX1 is mounted with a touch-sensitive 3.0-inch TFT LCD panel with a pixel count of 0.23 million. It enables intuitive operations such as touching the screen to send a picture, activate the menu and so forth, Sony said.

Also, it features the "Vario-Tessar," Carl Zeiss AG's 4x optical zoom lens, a maximum aperture of 3.5 to 4.6, a wide angle of 35mm, an ISO sensitivity of 120 to 3,200. It measures 93.8 (W) x 58.2 (H) x 16.5mm (D) (excluding protrusions) and weighs about 119g. Its thinnest part is 14.1mm.

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