Rokton announces circular sensors

April 1st - Sensor manufacturer Rokton announced that it has developed round sensors instead of the traditional rectangular ones. In case you are not aware, lenses project round images, but the traditional rectangular sensors crop the middle sweet spot of the image circle. But Rokton figured that you're discarding half the image by using a rectangular sensor, and that is a big waste. By using Rokton's circular sensor, you'll be able to use all of the image. Sounds good?

Graphic explanation by Rokton

I doubt it. The problem with this theory is that although lenses project a circular image, most 35mm lenses are designed to provide a high quality image within the sweet spot (35mmx24mm) where rectangular sensors sit. Beyond that area, the image quality drops off quickly. So having a circular sensor doesn't make much sense to me.

In fact, releasing it on 1st April just makes it sound like a April Fool's joke. I'm pretty certain it is... let's see...

Update (3rd April): The Rokton website seems to be down, and DPReview has taken the announcement off their website. What could it be? Hmmm...