A Hilarious Look at the Terrible Names Manufacturers Give to Camera Sensor Sizes

Ok, are you ready? Without using Google, tell me the dimensions of a 1/2.3-inch camera sensor. Can't do it? Yeah, neither can I. No one can. This hilarious video takes a look at those bizarre names and sizes.

Before we jump in, I should warn you there's a healthy dose of profanity in the above video. Coming to you from Camera Conspiracies, this hilarious video takes a look at the seemingly incomprehensible names and numbers manufacturers assign to sensor sizes. The actual reason for this is because video camera tubes (decades ago) were sized by the outside diameter of the glass tube, though the size of the sensitive area inside was about two-thirds that of the outside diameter. This sizing ended up carrying over to digital sensors, with sizes corresponding to the nonexistent tube that contains the sensor. Annoyed yet? Me too. Unless you're really, really good at doing fractional arithmetic in your head and then doing the requisite geometry to turn that into sensor dimensions (don't forget to convert from inches to millimeters too), it's probably best just to surrender to Google and look up the actual dimensions. I do wish manufacturers would switch to a standard that is simpler and corresponds to current technology. Until then, we'll have funny videos like this.