Foveon X3 Sensor - Utilization

Utilization

The first digital camera to use a Foveon X3 sensor was the Sigma SD9, a digital SLR launched in 2002. This used a 2268x1512×3 (3.54×3 MP) iteration of the sensor, and was based around a Sigma-designed body using the Sigma SA mount. The camera was followed in 2003 by the improved but technically similar Sigma SD10, which was in turn superseded in 2006 by the Sigma SD14, which used a higher-resolution, 2640×1760×3 sensor. Sigma announced a successor, the Sigma SD15, in 2008, although the camera did not go on sale until June 2010. It used the same 2640×1760×3 (4.7×3 MP) sensor as the SD14. As of 2011, it is Sigma's current prosumer digital SLR. In September 2010, the company announced the Sigma SD1, which uses a new, 4800×3200×3 sensor, and was aimed at the professional market.

In 2004, Polaroid Corporation announced the Polaroid x530, a compact camera based around a 1408×1056×3, 1/1.8" sensor. The camera received a limited release in 2005 but was recalled later in the year for unspecified image quality problems. Sigma announced a prototype of their own Foveon-based compact camera in 2006, the Sigma DP1, using the same 14 MP sensor as the SD14 DSLR. A revised version of the prototype was exhibited in 2007, and the camera was eventually launched in Spring 2008. Unlike the Polaroid x530, the DP1 was based around an APS-C-sized sensor, with a 28mm equivalent prime lens. The camera was subsequently revised as the DP1s and the DP1x. In 2009, the company launched the DP2, a compact camera based around the same sensor and body as the DP1, but with a 41mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens.

Foveon X3 sensors were also used in the Hanvision HVDUO-5M and HVDUO-10M, a pair of digital cameras aimed at the scientific and industrial markets.