A few days ago, on May 7th, the inventor of the CCD sensor (that’s the sensor that many digital cameras use) Williard Boyle, passed away, Image Sensors world noted on their blog.  He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009 for the invention which he and his partner George E. Smith created in 1969.   Imagine if camera manufacturers had jumped on this then !  Digital images of the first manned moon landing !

For you casual digital photography users, a CCD is a charge coupled device.  It is the sensor that many (but not all) digital cameras use to essentially transfer light properly from light to electrical signals and help it record as an digital image to your data card, or in my case SanDisk cards all the way).  Many other cameras use CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors.

In 2003 when digital SLR cameras were first hitting the market in a major way for all professional photographers, I had a choice – CCDs or CMOS sensors.   I went with CMOS sensor cameras because I liked the way the pixels were arranged on the sensor – each color was stacked on top of each other like a perfect piece of cake for the light to bite into vs. being arranged next to each other on a plate.  The debate is still out there.   In fact, depending on what job you are doing one technology will likely end up being more beneficial for you than the other.

Some good reads on CCD and CMOS sensor technologies and their benefits can be found here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/newsLetter/Comparing-Image-Sensors.jsp

http://www.canon.com/technology/s_labo/light/003/05.html

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/gear/imaging-tech/misinformation-sensor-tech.html