Canon Develops 120 Megapixel APS-H-Size CMOS Sensor

[Richard Lane]

Wow.., are you kidding me!


Ok, now I'm really glad that I went with Canon over that other brand. Even though this may not happen for a while, just think of the "trickle down effect," of this technological advancement.


http://www.The-Digital-Picture.com/Press-Release/Canon-Develops-120-Megapixel-CMOS-Sensor.aspx





Rich

[Colin500]

It's quite something, but somehow also predictable...


(At least it seems that way to me, who's been following microprocessors from several thousand transistors up to currently like a billion of them per chip.)


I'd be much more impressed by a new sensor with "noise-free" 15 stops of dynamic range, or "noise-free" ISO 15000!


Ciao, Colin

[Daniel Browning]

That is so cool. Man I would love to play around with this. If they used the same pixel size in a full frame sensor, it would be 199 MP. That's just about enough where I might finally be satisfied.

[DavidEccleston]

That's just about enough where I might finally be satisfied.

The 120 megapixel resolution may finally be bordering on okay, but the lousy 9.5fps burst rate kills any interest I may have had. [:P]


120 (megapixels) * 2 (16 bit) * 3 (color channels) = 720MB per image.
720MB * 9.5 (fps) = 6,840 MB/sec.
1 TB harddrive, full within 2 and a half minutes!

[Richard Lane]

Now.., theElectrical Engineers out there are going to be really busy, trying to figure out how they're going to move all that data through the Cameras Buffer.


It looks like the APS-H Sensor is not goingaway, anytime soon.





Rich

[Alan]

Forget about the 1TB hard drive....[]


They better start making much bigger CF cards, and dual slots. It won't take long to fill one of those 16 Gb CFs, especially at 9.5 fps!

[darklord]

It's quite something, but somehow also predictable...


(At least it seems that way to me, who's been following microprocessors from several thousand transistors up to currently like a billion of them per chip.)
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Manufacturers will soon abandone quoting the actual pixel count and go with something like this camera has a "E6600 Extreme" sensor when they couldn't increase pixel count anymore. It'll probably happen first in the P and S world wherebigger number always means better product.

[clemmb]

WOW, a DLA of f/4.1. What lens shall I use?[][] LOL

[Daniel Browning]

120 (megapixels) * 2 (16 bit) * 3 (color channels) = 720MB per image.
720MB * 9.5 (fps) = 6,840 MB/sec.

Minor correction: if you factor in the difference between MiB and MB (1000 vs 1024), it comes out to 687 MB per image and 6,523 MB/s.


That's what it would take for tiffs. If we look at the space needed for 14-bit raw files, you get to200 MB per image (120 * 1000 * 1000 * 14 / 8 / 1024 / 1024). With the right compression technology (PTN-based LUT + wavelet), you can get 12:1 without affecting image quality at all (as proven by RED ONE), which would bring it down to less than 20 MB per image. Too bad nobody listens to the software engineers...

[Sheiky]

Well it&acute;s nice, however I really doubt we get something out of it in the first couple of years. Read the part behind asterix number 3:


"In 2007, the company successfully developed an APS-H-size sensor with approximately 50 million pixels. "


I haven't seen an APS-H with 50MP yet...


Perhaps they exist for medical/aviation/space/military or other fancy purposes, I think we consumers have to wait a while longer.


To be honest I'm with Colin on his statement:



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I'd be much more impressed by a new sensor with "noise-free" 15 stops of dynamic range, or "noise-free" ISO 15000!

+1


Jan
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