An amazing new breed of sensor from Canon.

[iGas]

http://www.canonrumors.com/2013/03/canon-announces-the-development-of-new-high-sensitivity-sensor/

Canon Announces the Development of New High Sensitivity Sensor.

Press Release
TOKYO, March 4, 2013—Canon Inc. announced today that the company has successfully developed a high-sensitivity 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor exclusively for video recording. Delivering high-sensitivity, low-noise imaging performance, the new Canon 35 mm CMOS sensor*1 enables the capture of Full HD video even in exceptionally low-light environments...

Canon successfully captured a wide range of test video,*4 such as footage recorded in a room illuminated only by the light from burning incense sticks (approximately 0.05–0.01 lux) and video of the Geminid meteor shower...

IMHO, these kind of sensor technologies are the one that worth talking about.

I hope that there is a large improvement on the dynamic range at high and low light level, and Canon price it for the average consumer.

 

[Railgun]

You forgot about this part...

The newly developed CMOS sensor features pixels measuring 19 microns square in size, which is more than 7.5-times the surface area of the pixels on the CMOS sensor incorporated in Canon’s top-of-the-line EOS-1D X and other digital SLR cameras

Read:too huge for any consumer devices for a while.

 

[randomrogue]

You forgot about this part...



Read:too huge for any consumer devices for a while.

Astrophotography might be able to take advantage of it.

 

[Railgun]

Astrophotography might be able to take advantage of it.

No doubt...but you're still talking about a 27x18 CENTImeter sensor (granted it's not the same format, but keeping in line with the 4/3 of the DLSR as a reference).

Interesting, point in the article about noise increasing as pixel size increases...that's been the opposite usually hence FX/EF, etc being preferred (originally) for low light (read: high ISO) performance. Perhaps it's in a different context.

 

[blastingcap]

You forgot about this part...

Read:too huge for any consumer devices for a while.

The costs of sensors tend to go up exponentially as a function of size, so if it's 7.5 times larger, it will cost MUCH MORE than 7.5 times more. Plus you would presumably need a much larger lens to create a much larger image circle for that much larger sensor. And lenses also tend to go up exponentially as a function of lens size and number of elements.

Edit: sorry, I misread. But yeah larger pixels... so what, that's good for 1080p but not useful for photos which do not get worse if you get more pixels and factor in the sampling.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

You forgot about this part...

Read:too huge for any consumer devices for a while.

I'm confused - it says it is a 35mm full frame sensor. I would assume the reason the pixels are larger is that it's a relatively low-res sensor since it's meant for video only.

 

[iGas]

Will be great for low light video surveillance at 2.1 million pixels. On the other note 3 years ago Canon announced that it developed a 120 million pixels sensor. This fact suggests that Canon R&D department is working hard at improving sensors, and perhaps these technologies will make it to the consumer level in the next few years.

 

[blastingcap]

Will be great for low light video surveillance at 2.1 million pixels. On the other note 3 years ago Canon announced that it developed a 120 million pixels sensor. This fact suggests that Canon R&D department is working hard at improving sensors, and perhaps these technologies will make it to the consumer level in the next few years.

Doesn't mean squat about consumer cameras. Canon is still making sensors at 500nm node size whereas Sony and others are at 180nm and below. That's just sad.

 

[disappoint]

Cool

 

[wirednuts]

wait... all you need is a burning inscent stick to provide enough light for the room? that is incredible! they could call it catvision!

 

[acx]

The pixels are larger but the number of pixels is less. So it is still 35mm full frame but with 2 megapixels instead of 20+.

 

[disappoint]

The pixels are larger but the number of pixels is less. So it is still 35mm full frame but with 2 megapixels instead of 20+.

Where does it say it is 2 MP? I must have missed it skimming the article.

edit: Did you just take 20 and divide by 7.5? Because they could have increased the surface area per pixel as well for all we know, the article is short on such details.

 

[Munky]

Meh.. the most exiting sensor I've seen is Fuji's EXR sensor. And I'm saying this as a long time Nikon/Canon user. The dynamic range it produces is a sight to behold.

 

[acx]

Where does it say it is 2 MP? I must have missed it skimming the article.

edit: Did you just take 20 and divide by 7.5? Because they could have increased the surface area per pixel as well for all we know, the article is short on such details.

It's a 16:9 aspect ratio sensor. It's 35mm across. The pixels are 19 microns on each side. 35mm/19 microns is about 1850 pixels. 16:9 aspect ratio means the other side must be about 1000 pixels. Likely the pixel is slightly smaller than 19 microns across and the sensor is 36mm for a 1920x1080 image.