And the greater the number of pixels packed into an imaging chip, the more complex - and expensive - the components are.

During the cold war, the Rochester-based company designed and manufactured electronic imaging chips for use in spy satellites.

Fitted into the space normally taken up by a roll of film is the imaging chip.

The imaging chips are smaller than the 35-millimeter negatives for which the camera optics were designed.

The imaging chip of the DC-40 has 380,000 pixels - much less information than the professional cameras but enough for display on a computer monitor.

A digital solution, developed about 1996, lets the lens illuminate just part of the camcorder's imaging chip.

These "holes" or positive charges can be created by heat or imperfections in the creation of the imaging chip.

The combined image will fall on an electronic imaging chip similar to those used in television cameras.

That process could result in economies of scale by allowing the imaging chips to be made on big production lines used for other chips.

The 30D has a smaller imaging chip than the 5D, but it costs less than half as much.