Pictures show how badly earthquakes damaged Sony’s Kumamoto sensor factory

Yeah... because japan has never had an earthquake!

That's interesting, so Iceland must produce a TON of high resolution CMOS sensors then!

Trying to think of a country with better experience in manufacturing/engineering under the constant threat of earthquakes than Japan. Iceland isn't near the top of any hypothetical list.

It would take a huge amount of correction to fix, and I'm not ever sure whether it could be as the lights will be nowhere near full spectrum being designed to eliminate any wavelengths towards the blue end of the spectrum. Additionally, it would cease to be truthful to the scene as a a document to remove the cast, as it's part of the design of the room, and even the human optic system and brain is unable to compensate the casts in these rooms back towards daylight. I've been in a few over the years.

If you look at the last picture on the site the images are sourced from, it looks like they kind of did! There's a bit of concrete under a massive support that looks to have been built as a shock absorber and the concrete block was meant to be a sacrificial intermediary.

@Fujica @Fujimoto @jaythomasni @Mariano Pacifico and a few others are more of a reminder this site is full with idiots who think is funny to make "sarcastic" jokes out of disasters where many people lost their lives.

Oh my god - why do some people always need to be so politically correct...

The only idiot here is you Villigrance.
Many people find their death each day due to accidents, illness, wars or plain hatred.

So from now on its forbidden to talk about cars as each day hundreds of lifes are lost due to car accidents.

From now ont its forbidden to talk about fastfood as hundres of people die each day of cancer or obese.

Let us remind us then each day that chances of being killed by a gun is much higher then the chance to die in a natural distaster.

If we need to follow YOUR rules then people should fully stop talking to eachother and remind us by each word we say how much misery there is in this world!

This has nothing to do with being politically correct. "My rules" are show some humanity and compassion.

Talking about illness, car accidents, hamburgers or terrorist attacks is a complete different thing than make FUN out of them. However if being the local Borat rocks your boat so be it.

So if people say things that are not to YOUR liking then they should be categorized as 'inhumane' and not compassionate?

Strange thinking that is.

I didn't say anything inappropriate about people that have been killed during this natural disaster and there was no sarcasm involved either.

You are in no position to tell others what they should or should not say.

To be fair we in Iceland build them on fault lines and they are fine because just like the japanese temples we know how to build for earthquakes to have almost no impact. Japanese temples dont use a single nail, ours do but they work in a similar way to the temples as they dont take the full blast they move with it.

People who always complain about being PC are usually sociopaths who enjoy the suffering of others! Probably explains all the nonsensical camera system bickering!

"Who gives a rat ass about you waiting for your unicorn camera."

Those who work in the damaged factories and their families?

wasnt trying to be funny, just people complain about quakes, tornados etc but go and build where they exist. If anything those deaths are Sonys negligence making them work in such a dangerous area when that plant could have been built in northern europe which is natural disaster free. They also should have earthquake proofed the building like most properties in countries like turkey which are built to with stand earthquakes

barryum1966:

To quake proop doesn´t necessarily mean EVERYTHING in such a building will avoid getting damaged! It may be that the building itself could survive, but to ensure the hi tech very sensitive manufacturing hardware would not be damaged is probably next to impossible. And quakes isn´t happening EXACTLY at a certain predictable place, like precisely where a factory happen to be situated. For a japanese tech giant to simply decide to build all sensors (for example) in...Europe(!)) would certainly never happen.

Would you, by the way, recommend ALL OF California, people and buildings, to just be moved since everyone is sort of waiting for "the quake of quakes" to happen there?
When, no one knows, but it will come, or will it(?)

People of California should stay in California. The world is better off seeing them through a screen.

Morons.

Remember the Japanese idea of "Just In Time Inventory" system, where your company carried a barebones inventory of goods in order to minimize inventory capital costs and instead depended on your suppliers to deliver you stuff just in the nick of time when you absolutely needed to have it? For a while it was the newest way to do business, a bit of a fad...until it turned out that in the real world outside of Japan it didn't work so well.

These kinds of events strike all over, like the unforeseen floods in Thailand where Seagate hard drives, Sony Cameras and other makers were hit by setbacks . Its something businesses try to minimize.

Nah! costs, taxes and AU$/US$ rate are too high.

Japan is not exactly a low cost country and the $AU is only 75 US cents now.
Our corporate tax is lower then the US too.

Egypt. Enormous, extremely weather stable country with 100million population, northern & southern deserts are endless and perfect for such factories. Also, an egyptian highly taught engineer monthly salary is about 250 USD. A typical worker, 50-100 USD. I don't think anywhere could beat that! Sad fact is these are extremely talented and hardworking people and education is absolutely top notch.

I think many countries would extremely benefit from outsourcing other than China. Not a matter to discuss here but just giving an example.

Anyhow: I hope Sony Semiconductor's division gets back on it large feet being the largest sensor manufacturer in the world. They are always leading the competetion with absolutely gorgeous imaging sensors that force others to keep up. Which is awesome for us all whether Sony users or Not. I am glad Sony gave a 36mp D810 and 42mp A7rII because their existence probably gave me my 5DSR much sooner than later.

Not to mention the lovely new MF cameras carrying the gorgeous 50mp sensor, from hasselblad to Pentax to others.

As a sensor maker, nobody comes close (well Canon gets close by definition but not close close). That's why I always wanted Canon to embrace Sony as a sensor maker and apply their magic on it (because Sony's magic doesn't work for me!).

Semiconductor designs and productions are as complicated as the Histology of the human body so it's not something one can throw some words about easily, but, is appeara to me, just to me, that all the companies, including Nikon and Canon, are learning from Sony SC division.

>>Egypt. Enormous, extremely weather stable country with 100million population, northern & southern deserts are endless and perfect for such factories. <<

Middle East unrest causes many large corporations to overlook such locations. I wouldn't blame them. Large countries that provide both sides in smaller countries with money and weapons and then wonder why it's difficult to maintain peace in the region.
It probably would be a good location geographically but there are so many other issues that corporations would not want to take on.

@Ebrahim Saadawi. Peace in the Middle East can't come soon enough. Rule of law, democracy and effective strategies to combat corruption will bring huge benefits to the Middle East. Security is a major worry for westerners. For example I would love to visit Egypt as a tourist but I am too concerned about my family's security due to terrorist attacks over the last few years. It is a real shame as many Egyptians I have met are wonderful people and I believe Egypt is a truly amazing country.

Why not in Israel? Intel, Moto, etc. are there and prosper.
Very highly educated engineers and software developers, stable democracy,
good climate, not much earthquakes... And they love Sony and other camera
and electronics there.

I prefer Nikon get it right and have no more recalls

Probably because it's not available outside Asia. Casio left the American and European markets years ago.

Nothing false about the logic at all. I was simply pointing out the benefits of decentralization. If Sony, Canon, and Panny each have fabs in different locations, then we have a far lower probability of losing all sensor manufacturing capability at one time. It would be better yet, if each had three fabs in a total of 9 different places (preferably some in a less quake prone region than Japan. To see best practice, check out the way Intel diversifies their fabs.

That light would screw up your rods and cones faster than a Kenny Roger's Roasters neon sign. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoJC7fowsk

About 5 years ago the delivery of flat Screen panels had a serious Delay because the only Factory processing rare Earth materials for such panels had a serious hit by earthquake - also in Japan. I didn't believe my supplier and checked.
This is consequence of Globalisation.
If US goes hard on China, please first check who sits on vital parts of rare Earth materials. Most Electronics won't Work without.

This particular plant happened to be the one making large sensors for consumer cameras, and it affected among others Nikon, Fuji, Ricoh and of course Sony's own cameras. I believe sensors for mobile devices, surveillance and industrial use (all much larger markets) are made in other plants.

Why people live in Alabama if there are tornadoes or in Louisiana if they get flooded? Why to live in the US if you have Trump?

Look at a earthquake map of Earth, not a lot of places to build to get away from earthquakes.

"Why to live in the US if you have Trump?"

Because he will make America Great Again. Deal with it.

Japan builds their buildings to very high earthquake standards, the photos you show are in Mexico, their buildings can fall over in a strong breeze.

In all fairness, Mexico City is built on a huge lake bed, with multiple stability issues due to fill materials and a falling water table, while building standards have been improved since the catastrophic 1985 earthquake.

the light is supposed to be yellow ...

You can't possibly be serious Vincent. Are you suggesting that they could be up and running sooner if they just pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and got back to work? If there is anything the Japanese are know it is their ability to rebuild, it is most certainly not putting work off to a later date. Is there some camera you were hoping would be available that you just can't wait to get your mitts on?

Beyond the work of reconstructing clean rooms and replacing/repairing specialized equipment, there is real danger in this level of destruction because of the extreme toxicity of some of the materials used in VLSI fab. I'm aware of fabs where the plan in case of accidental internal release of some materials was literally immediate and permanent sealing the facility (with the contaminated workers inside). Although that type of worst-case scenario doesn't seem to have happened, the potential for it can make repairs a much slower and more deliberate process than you might think... surprisingly like clean-up of a potentially-damaged nuclear reactor.

FLruckas,

Okay, with the dismissal of the litho plates, you've just proven you know zero about chip etching.

Hint: the choice of litho plates was not an analogy.

Females, too. I do know that many females are working into fabric plants, it was just an example.

Interesting that you assume women can't leave women and children behind.