06-30-2011, 08:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-30-2011, 09:38 PM by Brightcolours.)
[quote name='Klaus' timestamp='1309463131' post='9655']
A sort-of-college investigated the production costs recently. He concluded production costs of less than 100$ actually and less than 20$ for an APS-C sensor.
However, just take the EOS 7D vs 5D II - we are talking about 1300EUR vs 1900EUR. In terms of total investments the 600EUR difference is, frankly, just "noise". If a potential 7D buyer really wanted he could afford a 5D II. Yet the 7D seems to outsell the 5D II by quite a margin - in Japan it does so by a factor of two.
I think the users just don't want to hassle with the usual FF bugs such as high vignetting and poor wide angles and, of course, the much more heavier tele lenses (at comparable FOV).
[/quote]
Well, all I can say is that i highly doubt his findings of cost for the sensors.
http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/index.php/category-technical/223-the-economics-of-digital-photo-sensors
For Canon, at least (and for the moment) APS-H sensors are the biggest sensors that can be imaged in one shot on a wafer. Full frame sensors need to be imaged in 3 exposures, tripling the number of masks and exposure processes. And that many times per wafer for all the different processing steps...
According to Canon's documentation, 8" wafers can produce 200 APS-C sensors, about 46 APS-H sensors, and only 20 FF sensors.
Other cost factors, besides the wafers: 400-600 production steps per wafer, and a few faults on APS-C wafers only result in a small percentage of rejected sensors, on FF wafers the percentage will be a lot higher.
Add to that the that AA-filters double the costs of the sensors.
And due to the higher prices for FF, the production numbers will be lower, also making them more expensive again.
According to Canon, FF sensors are 10 to 20 times as expensive to manufacture.
A sort-of-college investigated the production costs recently. He concluded production costs of less than 100$ actually and less than 20$ for an APS-C sensor.
However, just take the EOS 7D vs 5D II - we are talking about 1300EUR vs 1900EUR. In terms of total investments the 600EUR difference is, frankly, just "noise". If a potential 7D buyer really wanted he could afford a 5D II. Yet the 7D seems to outsell the 5D II by quite a margin - in Japan it does so by a factor of two.
I think the users just don't want to hassle with the usual FF bugs such as high vignetting and poor wide angles and, of course, the much more heavier tele lenses (at comparable FOV).
[/quote]
Well, all I can say is that i highly doubt his findings of cost for the sensors.
http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/index.php/category-technical/223-the-economics-of-digital-photo-sensors
For Canon, at least (and for the moment) APS-H sensors are the biggest sensors that can be imaged in one shot on a wafer. Full frame sensors need to be imaged in 3 exposures, tripling the number of masks and exposure processes. And that many times per wafer for all the different processing steps...
According to Canon's documentation, 8" wafers can produce 200 APS-C sensors, about 46 APS-H sensors, and only 20 FF sensors.
Other cost factors, besides the wafers: 400-600 production steps per wafer, and a few faults on APS-C wafers only result in a small percentage of rejected sensors, on FF wafers the percentage will be a lot higher.
Add to that the that AA-filters double the costs of the sensors.
And due to the higher prices for FF, the production numbers will be lower, also making them more expensive again.
According to Canon, FF sensors are 10 to 20 times as expensive to manufacture.