NikonWeb.com

Being a bit of a saddo I have spent the evening writing a database driven serial no. register for DCS models.

At the moment it is only for the more common models, but will add more soon. Will also add a stats page.

Have only tested it a little bit so don't get upset if it breaks

It is completely anonymous, but may give an idea of the numbers made/still in use.

See it here: http://www.killingforculture.com/random/index.php

Must go-it's bedtime...

_________________
DCS serial no. survey
EOS-1D Mk I & II, EOS*DCS-3 & 5, DCS, DCS-200ci, 420, 460, D1, D1H & X, D2H, E2, F, F2, F3, F4, RD-175, EF 50mm f/1.0, Audi S2, Porsche 911, GSX-R1000 K9

just added

DCS-420m
DCS-460-m

all the best

alex

What does "Xena CMY" mean? Is ist a different sensor type for DCS 620X, SCS 2000 and DCS 720X compared to DCS 620, DCS 660 and DCS 760? I cannot find anything about it in the specifications of the manual.

Hi,

Yes. That's what it means. The 620x/720x use a Cyan-Yellow-Magenta dyeset for the Color Filter Array on the sensort in place of the usual Red-Green-Blue CFA dyeset used on everything else.

The reason being that the CYM dyes are only half as light sapping as the RGB dyes, thus allowing for the much higher ISO perfomance of the 'x' models.

This information was highly touted by Kodak at the time those cameras were marketed. They, of course, wanted to set those models apart from everything else in the marketplace to attract the professional low-light sports shooters.

It worked, as I used both the 620x, and later the 720x, to shoot nighttime auto racing as well as indoor professional bowling (where no flash is allowed).

One thing to know, though, is that the color reproduction of the CYM CFA is not as good as the other sensors. It comes 'close enough' given that, at the time, nothing else would capture as well in those particular situations. However, everything winds up tinted somewhat towards yellow, given that the Yellow dye is being used to determine luminance (as opposed to Green).

You get the best results using Kodak's own post-processing software, but it's still not as faithful with respect to color reproduction as the other RGB CFA sesnor equipped cameras are.

Later!

Stan

_________________
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Thank you for the explanation. My mistake was to search in the announcements of the 720X on dpreview. But the 720X was only an update of the 620X, so the special sensor design was not mentioned.

I know the special suitability for low light from the 720X, bit I did not know the technology behind it.

Another mistake was the search for "Xena" in Google, which was successless. What does "Xena" mean?

Hi,

As far as I know, 'Xena' was Kodak's name for the color array pattern used for the CYM CFA on the sensor. I see where they used 'Bay' for the standard pattern used for the RGB CFA sensors - also known as the 'Bayer Pattern'.

Most sensors you'll come across in digital cameras utilize the Bayer pattern color filter array using red, green and blue color dyes such that there are twice as many green photosites (pixels) compared to red or blue. They use a pattern of green-red-green-blue-repeat. This allows the use of the green 'channel' to determine luminance, or brightness of the scene. This makes sense as green light is in the middle of the visible spectrum while red and blue light are at the edges.

'Xena' may have been an internal code name for the CYM CFA sensor and not refer to the pattern they used at all. Most development projects are referred to by code names in most companies, and sometimes those code names wind up being used after the product is released.

In this case, I have no way of knowing exactly what 'Xena' meant at the time, but I see that it's applied to all the CYM CFA sensors in the list.....

Later!

Stan

_________________
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Thank you. Does any other DSLR (than DCD 620X, SCS 2000 and DCS 720X), perhaps of another company, use a CMY sensor?

Hi,

Not that I ever knew of. It was a Kodak sensor, so they might have sold it, or one like it, to an OEM, but I never heard about it, if so.

As far as I can tell, the CYM sensor was a scheme on Kodak's part to keep their 2 MP Full-Frame Transfer imager from the 520/620 line alive in the face of competition from Nikon and Canon with their own DSLRs.

It did work, as the resulting camera filled a need in the photojournalist and sports shooter markets.

Later!

Stan

_________________
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer