Left: 202x205mm sensor Right: 35mm EOS 5D Mark II sensor
If you’re one to complain that the image sensor in your digital camera isn’t big enough, you’re going to love what Canon has just announced.
Imagine a CMOS image sensor where they don’t bother measuring the pixels, just the millimetres! The new image sensor measures a massive 202x205mm (that’s eight-inches by eight-inches) and is 40-times larger than the 35mm full-frame sensor used in the company’s EOS 5D Mark II sensor.
It can capture images in 1/100th of the light the 35mm full-frame sensor would need but is still fast enough to allow 60fps video capture at just 0.3 Lux. Canon has worked some electronic trickery to enable it to spit out the massive amounts of video data fast enough to allow 60fps capture.
No word yet on when you’ll see one of these in action but given the possible uses are filming nocturnal animal behaviour, expect to see Sir David Attenborough showing off one of these in a documentary in the next year or two.