The idea has certainly been around since the inception of digital photography. And I’m not sure, but it’s possible there have been some medium format sensors with 1:1 aspect ratio. At least back in the days of the first digital backs. And I think the supposed end price of something like that might have killed them.

But digital photography is in a different place right now. The new Fujinon X-Trans CMOS sensors are amazing. In terms of dynamic range and detail people have been comparing them to Phase One’s medium format sensors. And these are consumer level, tiny 24mm APS-C sensors.

A true 60x60mm medium format digital sensor could still prove very expensive. And with current prices of medium format digital backs going above $50k, “very expensive” takes new dimensions.

In recent years, a lot of photographers expressed their desire for a square crop sensor. The square format has its roots with the 120mm film. But 35mm sensors are already competition for medium format. With ever increasing resolution and better low light performance. There are plenty of lenses for them. And the truth is, most of the DSLRs sold today are not even full frame. They are 1.5x or 1.6x crop. And even in this case, that’s still plenty of sensor real estate. My Fujifilm X-Pro1 proves it.

And a good point can be made here for the X-Pro1. It can shoot 1:1 Jpeg straight from the camera. The sensor’s not square, the image is cropped from the original 3:2 RAW data.

Still, it managed to spark a sub-culture of square format lovers, already making it’s way on Flickr.

A number of rumors about square sensors from Sony and Canon flooded the Internet last year without any evidence to them ever being true. But the sheer excitement of customers about such camera making its way into production should be a clear sign that the time for such a product has come.

There have been opinions flying around that since the image coming out the back of the lens is a circle, a square would make use of more of that image area, than a rectangle. This is mathematically true. However, moving towards square sensors is not just a matter of elementary school mathematics. And I’m not suggesting that in any way. 3:2 aspect ratio has its historical roots, of course. But there is more to it.

Visual perception biases people to wider formats because we can move our eyes more readily side to side so the “image” our brain composes seems to be wider than high.

—James Wilson