Re: [PATCH v5 2/2] media: i2c: Add Sony IMX908 image sensor driver

From: Lachlan Michael

Date: Mon Oct 26 2026 - 03:34:08 EST


Laurent, Sakari,

On 10/20/2026 9:56 PM, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
Hello Sakari,

On Tue, Oct 20, 2026 at 01:47:11PM +0300, Sakari Ailus wrote:
On Mon, Oct 19, 2026 at 10:47:20AM +0900, Lachlan Michael wrote:
The IMX908 is an 8.39 MP (3856x2176) CMOS image sensor with a MIPI CSI-2
output interface. The driver supports RAW10 and RAW12 output formats,
exposure and analogue gain controls, image flipping, blanking controls
and test pattern generation.

The imx908 appears to be a Starvis 3 sensor. How close is it to the Starvis
2, for which Dave (Cc'd) is working on a driver (see
<URL:https://lore.kernel.org/linux-media/atdAsDGw_jvhaydM@kekkonen.localdomain/T/#m0c50ea017ef9ae0d3d76a36b840db9b6f7ac296c>)?
The register defines in the two drivers appear to be quite well aligned.

The current version of the driver implements very few features of the
IMX908 sensor, as crop support has been removed pending the raw camera
sensor model, and Clear HDR3 is being developed. I expect more
differences to appear when those features will be merged, so I believe
it makes sense to have a separate driver here.

In the future, I expect the raw camera sensor model to open the door to
more code sharing and more drivers supporting a wider variety of
devices. We can decide then if the imx908 should stay a standalone
driver, support other sensors as well, possibly across the Starvis 2 and
3 families. I'm willing to help with the refactoring at that point if
needed, the maintenance burden won't be on you (and I'm sure that
Lachlan and his team will of course maintain the code base).

Just to add our official comment that we absolutely intend to support the agreed direction of the community and will refactor, patch and maintain as necessary to support the imx908 and other future contributions.

Best Regards,

Lachlan