Rumors are building that Sony is developing a 180 MP medium format sensor that could break cover as soon as next month.
The rumors that Sony is developing a 180 MP medium format sensor have been swirling around for some time, but now an article by Andrea Pizzini on Sony Alpha Rumors reckons that the new sensor is "100% confirmed", with more than one source indicating development is underway.
That development is quite advanced too, as in a follow-up YouTube video Pizzini also reckons that the new chip could be publicly unveiled as soon as the CP+ show in Japan next month. He's also done some math that suggests that the same pixel density would result in a 107 MP Full Frame sensor if anyone fancied building it.
This is interesting as we seem to have stalled at around 100 MP as a de facto standard for a while now. Sony is the predominant supplier of medium format chips in the industry, and its 102 MP medium format sensor can be found in everything from the Hasselblad X2D II 100C to the mighty FUJIFILM GFX Eterna 55. And given that the latter was just awarded IMAX digital certification, it's obviously no slouch.
That's partly because it has evolved along the way. The GFX Eterna, and the GFX100 II before it, use a newer version of the chip with faster readout that enables better AF and 8K video. But the resolution has remained stubbornly fixed since 2018.
Bumping that up and merging it with the new generation readout speeds, not to mention stacking and partial stacking, could give us a sensor with some truly breathtaking performance. As long as the rest of the imaging pipeline can keep up...
Either way, it looks like we'll know soon. And unlike a lot of recent esoteric chip development news, we'll probably see it embedded in a next generation of cameras fairly quickly after that. Sheer pixel quantity isn't everything, of course, but as far as the major camera manufacturer marketing departments go, it looks like the megapixel wars may be back.