Venatoria Network

The story of high-speed photography began in the second half of the 19th century by the French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey, whose work was carried by the British photographer Eadweard Muybridge to San Francisco. Muybridge received some attention when he used a picture to prove that horses, as they gallop, had their feet on the air for a brief moment. And so motion photography became! You can see it everywhere, like in these excellent pictures by photographer Richard Heeks who majestically reintroduces us to things we thought we knew, but discover that their faster than our eyes. 

Every stadium in the World Cup 2010 is filled with hundreds of cameras, taking millions of shots at a speed higher than a thousand frames per second. The quality talks to your heart, every time you see a frozen moment of a flying Julio Cesar or Messi's foot swing . Furthermore, the ultra-slow motion replays show you what we witnessed without seeing, actions that eyes and brain fail to follow! Who`s behind these videos?
Sensors play an important role in the increase of quality of imagery. They deliver such high quality videos by increasing frames` rate and gathering tons of data from every slipping second.
CCDs and CMOS, are the two disruptive technologies, invented in the 60s and 70s, behind this revolution. They both have advantages and tradeoffs. But CCD rapidly gain ground  in the 80s, because of its high quality and ability to produce with the available manufacturing technology at the time. In the 90s, CMOS required customized manufacturing technology, thus it failed to enter the market until the 90s. CCD revolutionized photography in the 80s, by delivering about 60 frames per second (fps). This rate kept increasing to reach 4,500 fps at 256*256 fps. CMOS made its market entry in the 90s, and even though it didn`t offer the same quality CCD sensors delivered, it offered smaller system size, lower power consumption, to deliver about 1,000 fps, quickly after entering the market.
CCD designers focused on reducing the power consumption and the pixel sizes, while CMOS designers aims were higher image quality. Now you can find CCDs in low cost products, as well as CMOS in premium products, in spite of the particular strengths and weaknesses of each technology. These crossovers occurred mainly with products by established players.
In its beginnings, CCD served a special market with a very particular need for its product. CCD consumers demanded very high quality images, such as car manufacturers for their air bag system testing, or scientific labs who need to record their experiments. CMOS on the other hand aimed at mass consumers first. Now both technologies are crossing over to other segments.
Lessons learned:

1) Introducing a new technology requires a customer who needs it  and a manufacturer who can produce it without additional costs.

2) Crossing over to a different segment requires an established customer base.