Sony Alpha DSLR Release: Interview with Mark Weir, Senior Product Manager for Digital-SLR Cameras at Sony Electronics.

   

DCI:
Absolutely. Getting into the technology a bit, can you indicate how you see the new Bionz image processor being different than the Real Image Processors, and how is it a better fit for an SLR?

Mark Weir:
If what you’re saying is the real imaging processor specifically, I would say that probably the biggest difference is operational speed and also what it’s doing. I mean if you think about it, the main CPU of a camera has similar responsibilities from model to model. But in the case of this processor, I think more effort is put into the image processing and the method by which the image processing is accomplished, then in most other processors. Specifically, part of this is aimed at maintaining very low noise levels even with higher pixel counts and slightly smaller pixel pitch. Maintaining per pixel sharpness becomes more and more difficult to realize as pixel counts go up in APS sensors. But I think that the primary difference is the dynamic range optimization. Which, as far as I know, hasn’t really been attempted in SLRs to date. Up until now, and again, I’m not aware of each and every product on the market, but up until now, it’s my opinion that most every image optimization scheme that’s been attempted to date has been done after the image has developed.

DCI:
Meaning in the software rather than in the hardware.

Mark Weir:
Well, not only in the software rather than in the hardware, but after the image has been processed, in other words, the process is not applied to the raw data coming off of the sensor. If you think of the shooting process as a sensor capturing the data, the data being processed, and then the data being recorded to media, specifically or perhaps exclusively, all of the optimization has been performed on the image after it has been processed into a JPEG and before it is written to the media. So, in other words it’s not just post-capture, it’s post processing.

DCI:
So it’s basically like applying auto levels to the RAW files?

Mark Weir:
No, it’s much more than “a” parameter, we have slides that would probably help explain it in greater detail for you, but I think that there’s at least four or five separate parameters which are evaluated and optimized in the process, and to do that on a 10 MP RAW file without negatively impacting the processing speed and therefore without negatively impacting the shooting speed is the real breakthrough.

DCI:
Is there any difference in the way it performs those tasks on the RAW file versus a JPEG?

Mark Weir:
It doesn’t perform those tasks on a JPEG at all. Dynamic Range Optimization in the camera is performed exclusively on the RAW data, never on the processed data.

DCI:
Does it boost information in shadows more than highlights or are both given equal weighting?

Mark Weir:
Depends upon the mode. As you know, there are two different selectable levels of DRO: there’s DRO standard and then there is DRO advanced. DRO standard is primarily manipulation of Gamma, it’s not exclusively manipulation of gamma but it’s primarily that. It covers the entire image, and its primary purpose is to recover or extract shadow detail. DRO advanced can extract detail from the shadowed areas, but it performs the analysis on an area by area basis and it also manipulates additional parameters so it is able to recover the shadow detail, as well as the highlight detail, without affecting the entire image. The primary reason for having separate standard and advanced is essentially the processing time, because we can’t execute the advanced process in the time necessary to maintain the three frames per second shooting rate.

DCI:
Is there any way to disengage the Dynamic Range Optimizer?

Mark Weir:
Oh, sure.

DCI:
You can disengage it completely?

Mark Weir:
Oh yeah, you can turn it off. You can et it for standard or you can set it for advanced. It’s up to you. We know that there are plenty of people who would say no, no, no, no, no, I’m not going to let my camera do that. I’m going to do that in post processing in Photoshop. Those people are going to say no, I capture everything in RAW and I process every one of my images by myself, and I perform all of that optimization on my own and we’re like, fine, no problem. But if you think about it, the time it takes to do that—I mean, that’s a very involved process.

DCI:
Absolutely, it becomes much more of a control issue at that point.

Mark Weir:
Yeah, and what we’re saying is that through the aid of this processor, we’re able to take an operation that is a minimum of, oh I would say twenty minutes, thirty minutes, and, for some people, hours and reduce it to a near instantaneous process. But we are not requiring it in any way and of course you can always capture RAW and JPEG and leave the RAW data as it is and enjoy the dynamic range optimization in the file that is ultimately processed to JPEG and written to memory. But in no way do we require that, we just think that it’s a major step forward that a camera could put forward processing at this level of sophistication and do it in the routine operation of shooting. I mean, you can literally enjoy DRO standard while blitzing along at three frames per second unlimited.

DCI:
Yeah, that’s great.

Mark Weir:
And that, I think, is the primary accomplishment of the Bionz processor. I don’t know anything that can do that.

DCI:
Fair enough. What decision was made to develop a new sensor rather than utilizing the R1’s CMOS sensor or another existing chip?

Mark Weir:
The sensor of the R1 was developed for completely different reasons. If you think about it, the R1 sensor was developed largely, not exclusively, but largely to support the R1’s key benefit, which is live preview.

DCI:
Do you live preview ever entering into this line?

Mark Weir:
Again, I have to blanket my comment with “we don’t comment on what we’re doing in the future,” but I think, based on what is necessary to afford live preview with this type of a camera, that the folks at Olympus are experiencing just how difficult that is. It’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s not easy as it sounds to realize it from the standpoint of an SLR with a mechanical mirror and focal plain shutter, and it’s not nearly as easy as it sounds to realize it in a camera like an R1. Live preview off of the sensor, not off of a secondary sensor tucked away in the penta-prism, is much more difficult than it sounds, largely because of the amount of data that needs to be processed and the speed at which that data needs to be processed.

DCI:
Yeah and to utilize the auto focus.

Mark Weir:
Right, and focusing off the sensor is much more difficult than it sounds. So realistically, I think that you know, efforts will be made. Whether they’re going to be made by us or not is another story, but efforts will be made to try to realize the benefit of live preview in an optical TTL penta-prism style camera, but it’s much harder than it sounds and I think it’s what really sets the R1 apart from SLRs.

DCI:
As a company that also manufactures video, do you see any benefit to consumers for SLR cameras to shoot video?

Mark Weir:
You know, it goes back and forth, there are some people I’ve heard who’ve said that’s the quintessential feature and there are others that I’ve heard that have said, it’s not nearly as beneficial as it sounds. Personally, my feeling is that it’s one thing to say “Yeah, I’d like that,” but it’s another thing to understand the technical obstacles in the way of doing that and believe me, it’s much more than just the mirror and the focal point shutter mechanism. There’s a lot of things that separate single lenses still capture from video capture that are still unaddressed even by point-and-shoot cameras. So, I would say that, yeah, it’s a great pursuit, but whether it will be as well received as those that are asking for it make it seem is yet to be seen. I think that, in other areas, there is plenty of headway being made with the integration of still and moving image capture and, as far as I’ve seen, those devices that are really making the great advances are not necessarily yet being aggressively embraced by consumers. I think you understand the technical obstacles that are involved in terms of compression technology and media technology—I mean, literally writing the data files onto the media.

DCI:
It’s certainly a challenge.

Mark Weir:
The sensor technology, the lens technology, you know, there’s a lot of development that’s yet to be done to really realize this holy grail of the complete integration of the two. It really has very little to do with SLRs, because the underlying technology is the part that needs to be fixed first. And then whether it’s applied to an SLR or not almost becomes academic. So my feeling is:, are there people avidly pursuing this? You bet. When it’s realized, will it be as well received as everyone would have thought that it would be? I don’t know, we’ll see.

DCI:
Yeah, fair enough. I personally see its chief benefit coming when you can utilize a continuous stream of video capture for still purposes rather than with the availability of an affordable consumer video recorder that can change lenses.

Mark Weir:
Yeah exactly, and its purpose is capturing a string of frames and capturing the best one, that’s so different. That’s capturing super high resolution: eight, ten, or twelve mega-pixel images with extraordinarily high frame rate. That’s completely different from capturing maybe a one or two megapixel interlaced or progressive frame at 30 frames per second. You know, it’s completely different. Video and still are much, much more different than people think they are and the notion of saying “Okay, let’s make them both in a single device,” is much, much more challenging than people would think because they’re really very, very different acts.

DCI:
Do you think that it’s even a noble pursuit?

Mark Weir:
I think there are plenty of noble pursuits in the world and, if you think about it, the technology to realize it may yield products that go beyond what these products would originally be intended for. So yeah, it’s always a noble pursuit.