Sony's New 8K Global Shutter Sensor Achieves 200+ fps

In continuation of our previous article about the IMX928, we saw that Sony has quietly added another member to its global shutter sensor family that flips one of the biggest constraints in high-resolution imaging: readout speed. A few days ago, we covered the arrival of the large-format global shutter Sony IMX928, and today we’re highlighting its smaller but much faster sibling, the Sony IMX929, which pushes 8K-class resolution beyond 200 frames per second with a true global shutter. This is not a cinema camera announcement, and it is not framed as a new standard like Super 35 or full frame. Instead, it is a technology signal of how far sensor readout performance can go when speed is prioritized. Let’s check it out. A sibling to the IMX928 with a very different strength Where the IMX928 is notable for its large format and wider field of view, the IMX929 trades size for raw throughput. It uses the same Sony Pregius S global shutter architecture we discussed with the IMX928. That means a stacked CMOS design and simultaneous pixel exposure. The key difference is that IMX929 is optimized for high-speed full-sensor readout rather than maximum geometric size. This yields a sensor that is physically smaller than its larger counterpart, yet capable of achieving massive frame rates without rolling shutter distortion. This combination is uncommon at this resolution class. What the numbers mean: ~50MP at high fps The IMX929 does not map to traditional video resolution labels, and it should not be described as a cinema standard like Super 35. What makes it noteworthy is how it pushes a very high pixel count at speed: around 8224 × 6176 effective pixels, which is above 8K UHD horizontally and vertically. That places it in the “8K-class” category in terms of raw pixel count. ~200 fps at 10-bit precision. ~136 fps at 12-bit precision.n These figures come from industrial camera implementations of the IMX929 and reflect full-sensor continuous frame rates without subsampling or heavy windowing. This means every frame at every pixel is read out simultaneously, thanks to the global shutter design. High frame rates and global shutter have historically been at odds with high resolution. Traditional sensors either roll their shutter, introducing skew and motion artifacts at speed, or slow down readout as resolution increases, limiting fps. IMX929 demonstrates that global shutter and high resolution need not mean slow motion capture. The result is a sensor that can deliver very fast motion capture with no rolling shutter artefacts across every pixel. This has direct relevance for workflows that depend on clean motion geometry and extremely fast capture, including: Technical slow motion plates, robust motion vector extraction, precision timing in high-speed action capture, VFX data that demands geometric integrity, and so on. Those benefits are not tied to a specific “cinema resolution” label. They are tied to how motion is recorded and how reliably frame data can be interpreted downstream. Still not a cinema sensor, and that’s intentional Like the IMX928, the IMX929 is not engineered as a cinema sensor. The differences from a cinema-tuned design are deliberate: Dynamic range is typically lower than what high-end cinema rolling shutter sensors achieve, low-light performance and highlight response are not tuned for artistic latitude or aesthetic roll-off, color pipelines are built for accuracy and consistency, not filmic character. These are not oversights. Sony’s Pregius S line is designed for industrial imaging, inspection, and machine vision, where precision and speed are paramount, and where global shutter delivers real technical advantages. The takeaway for cinema technology What the IMX929 highlights is this: the readout speed ceiling at very high resolutions is falling. Sony has shown that global shutter at multi-megapixel densities can be read at hundreds of frames per second with full bit depth. That is a big step toward solving one of the toughest challenges for future sensory design: How do we get the best of both worlds, high resolution and high fps with accurate motion, without compromise? Sony’s incremental improvements in the Pregius S family, from the large format IMX928 to the high-speed IMX929, show that the industry is closing the gap between industrial performance and what filmmakers have long wanted from global shutter in cinema.