Foveon
Traditional digital camera (is'nt this an oxymoron?) sensors were equipped with just one filter over each individual unit on the sensor; which means, that each pixel in the image would contain just one out of the 3 possible colors (Red, Green or Blue). I think this was because of the cost and technology required to implement 3 filters (R,G & B) over each pixel. The final image would then be obtained by passing the image through Bayer filters and then approximating the RGB values of each pixel. But then, Foveon came up with its range of X3 sensors (recently, I think), which have 3 filter icons over each possible unit of the sensor, thus eliminating the need for any such approximations in the final image. Even though I don't see this sensor being implemented in any of the current Canon or Nikon models (both Canon and Nikon manufacture their own sensors), I sincerely hope this technology gains some rapid momentum. Maybe then, we can compete with the image quality of traditional SLR's.
