Cambridge, UK, April 1, 2010: Rokton today brings to you the image sensor, reinvented. In a revolutionary rethinking of the very geometry of picture-taking, the circular sensor brings you a host of new opportunities beyond the conventional boundaries of digital capture. No longer do you need to throw away half of the circular image seen by your lens, now  you can use it all – getting more from your glass than ever before.

Cameras using Rokton sensors will cover a circular image fully 43mm in diameter – the same as the diagonal of a 35mm film negative, or a ‘full-frame’ digital sensor. This allows you to capture the entire image circle projected by your lens, wasting none of the light it gathers, and giving you the ultimate flexibility to crop the image any way you like after capturing that decisive moment.

Rokton sensors have been optimised in every aspect of their operation to work flawlessly in full-time live view mode, enabling their use in mirrorless cameras with electronic viewing. Our special ‘Dynartec’ (DYNAmic Real TimE Cropping) technology gives the user complete freedom to decide which area of the frame will be recorded while they’re shooting, or alternatively they can capture the complete circular raw and crop afterwards, using our unique circRAW format. The cameras won’t need to be tied to a single lens mount either – so you’ll be able to use all of your lenses, new or old.

Rokton has developed a functioning prototype sensor and camera body as proof of concept, and demonstrated that the circular sensor can be accommodated behind all recent 35mm full-frame SLR mounts with minimal modification. You’ll also be able to use lenses with smaller image circles, so you can mount all kinds of optics, from modern high-quality APS-C zooms to characterful 16mm movie camera lenses.   

Rokton chief executive officer Dr. Hwee Ng said ‘We’ve noticed that the ultimate imaging device, the human eye, is kind of round, lenses are round, and the most common photographic subject in the world - the human face - is often round too. The more we thought about it the more we realized a circular sensor made perfect sense.’

‘Like everyone else we`ve also been watching Micro Four Thirds closely, and have struck been by how keenly people have embraced all the legacy lenses out there that weren`t originally designed for digital stills photography. These lenses all project circular images, but film or legacy image sensors all wastefully crop them to rectangles. We want to unleash the full potential of all that unused glass.’

`There are of course some issues with cost; we estimate a 12MP circular sensor might cost twice as much as an equivalent rectangular sensor, however you’ll only need to buy one camera body which can use every lens out there, and the fact it allows you to save hundreds of dollars by using old but still excellent screw mount lenses from eBay more than makes up for this.`

‘We foresee the circular image literally revolutionizing photography. We can see a market for a range of products to match the sensor concept, from circular printer paper to picture frames. The circular image also ideally matches a huge number of popular photo uses, from DVD labels to coasters. And the best thing about circular photo frames is that you won’t have to hang them straight.’

Rokton has patents pending on the circular sensor concept, and circRAW and DynarTec technologies.