Rumors: Sony to include an OLED viewfinder in upcoming DSLR cameras?

There are rumors that Sony's upcoming A77 DSLR will have an OLED viewfinder with 3 million pixels (more than double the pixel count in the current A55/33 LCD viewfinder). The new viewfinder will also have a faster refresh rate and better brightness (which is to be expected from an OLED micro display...). It is said that the same viewfinder will be used in next-gen Sony NEX cameras, too (as an optional external EVF or a built-in one, it's not clear).

This is not the first we hear of Sony's OLED microdisplays: back in January 2011 Sony unveiled a 3D head mounted display with two OLED microdisplays. Those displays were said to be made by Sony and feature 720p (1280x720) - which means 921,600 pixels. This makes us wonder whether the 3 million pixel count in the rumor is correct. After all, even eMagin's highest resolution OLED microdisplay (the SXGA OLED-XL) offers only 1280x1024 resolution (1,310,720 pixels). Perhaps (as some commenters suggested) these are 3 million sub-subpixels - which fits 720p more or less.

Source: 
Sony Alpha Rumors
Tags: 
Sony OLED
OLED Microdisplays
OLED devices
OLED Digital cameras
Posted: Mar 31,2011 by Ron Mertens

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 12:43

Maybe they're counting RGB subpixels? That would make it much more likely...

Even though I wouldn't mind having "just" a 1280x720 viewfinder OLED. :)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/01/2011 - 00:31

From eMagin's 3/16/11 Q4 release, they now have a 7,000,000 (sub)pixel display:

  • eMagin completed the design of a 1920 x 1200 resolution display for the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Technology Research Center (TATRC). The microdisplay is the highest resolution microdisplay developed to date by eMagin, and has higher resolution than an HDTV but is of a size less than 1 inch in diagonal. The HD-resolution display will feature more than 7 million sub-pixels and a contrast ratio of 100,000 to 1, while consuming less than 350 milliwatts of power. eMagin will continue to receive contract revenue from this ongoing R&D project for a total of $6.4 million through 3Q11.