Canon enters the sensor business with monster 120 MP APS-H sensor and specialised 2.2 MP low-light unit

tech2 News StaffMay 21, 2018 21:51:56 IST

As far as photographers are concerned, Canon cameras are a by-word for image quality. A by-product of designing and making your own cameras is that you also, usually, design and make your image sensors.

An image of Canon's monster 120 MP industrial image sensor

It’s now been revealed that Canon has now entered the camera sensor business and has started selling sensors.

Among the new sensors that’s Canon’s put up for sale via distributor Phase 1 is a monster 120 MP APS-H unit. Yes, that’s not a typo. Canon is offering a 120 MP APS-H sensor (13280x9184) that measures 29.22 mm x 20.20 mm). It uses 2.2 micron pixels to give an effective resolution of 122 MP, reports The New Camera. The pixel size of an average smartphone camera is 1 micron.

Other sensors on offer include a 5 MP sensor with 3.4-micron pixels. It’s capable of continuous image capture at 5 MP and is better suited to machine learning applications.

A third sensor is a 2.2 MP RGB sensor designed specifically for low-light FHD image capture. The latter is a very specialised lens that’s as large as a full-frame sensor (the same sensor dimensions as on a Canon 5D Mark IV), but the pixels are 19 microns in size.

All of these sensors appear to be highly specialised and are not of the type we’d normally see on consumer-grade cameras. Because of this, we suspect that these fascinating sensors will see more use in industrial applications.