History of Super CCD

Fujifilm succeeded in developing the octagonal photodiodes, rather than using the conventional CCD of rectangular lattice array, to create the Super CCD I that possesses a larger light gathering area. Balancing resolution, sensitivity, and dynamic range, it has led the way for a new high definition age for digital cameras. The Super CCD I was judged by international authorities for its structural principles and was awarded the 2001 Walter Kosonocky Award for its significant advancement in solid-state image sensors field.

The Super CCD HR IV has responded to the high-end needs of a compact digital camera to compose shots that are true-to-life. Fujifilm has enabled multiple pixels using advanced miniature fabrication technologies to reach 6.63 million total pixels, becoming the world's first 1/1.7 inch CCD to attain this number. Moreover, it has offered a wider range of sensitivity settings from ISO 80-800. The HR made further advances together with the SR, achieving an expanded dynamic range, thereby broadening the possibilities for digital cameras.

The Super CCD SR IV is based on the concept of a negative film structure. A “double pixel structure” comprised of “S pixel” with a large area and high sensitivity, and “R pixel” with a small area and low sensitivity are incorporated. This enables R pixel to capture subtle shades of highlights which cannot be captured by S pixel alone. Fujifilm has achieved a dynamic range approximately four times greater than conventional sensors by optimally combining two types of pixel signals to create an image. Its gradation and texture expression come close to negative film that can only be achieved by film makers, attracting wide attention.

The Super CCD HR V has magnificently succeeded in improving indoor shots and shooting darkly lit scenes. Incorporating its proprietary image processing engine “Real Photo Engine” in FinePix F10, Fujifilm has realized the world's first ISO1600 standard compact digital camera capable of high sensitivity photography with 6.3 million effective pixels. This technology has been further refined in the Super CCD HR VI outfitted in the FinePix F30. Highly appraised as a masterpiece, the camera has been awarded the “Innovative Digital Product Award” by DIMA (Digital Imaging Marketing Association).

Just as “the eye adjusts factors like resolution and sensitivity according to brightness,” a new generation of CCD was developed through Fujifilm's long history of their cumulated technology.
Through a new color filter array and an evolutionary three-way capture technology, they have attained a new level of imaging which realizes high resolution, wide dynamic range, and high sensitivity and low noise simultaneously by applying the merits of the former HR and SR sensors.
The development of this new technology undertaken by Fujifilm have now created the ultimate CCD, the Super CCD EXR.