Canon develops aps-h image sensor with 120 megapixels

Canon has developed a cmos image sensor in aps-h format with a resolution of 120 megapixels. Canon’s previous record was 50 megapixels. The company has no plans to actually put the sensor into production.

The aps-h image sensor with a 1.3x crop factor measures 29.2 by 20.2 mm and together with the resolution of 120 megapixels, this results in a pixel size of approximately 2.2 µm. Such sensor pixel sizes can also be found in the compact camera segment. The current EOS 1D Mark IV also uses an aps-h image sensor, but it has a resolution of 16 megapixels.

Despite the high resolution, Canon has managed to read out of the sensor at high speed; 9.5 images per second can be read by an image processing chip of the sensor. Because problems with signal delays can occur at such read speeds, Canon has used a different method for the electronics responsible for timing the readout.

The sensor has the ability to record full HD video. What is special is that the sensor can be virtually divided into sixty segments of 2 megapixels each. The sensor can then read the full HD video from those segments, so that no interpolation of the individual video pixels takes place. It is not known whether full HD video of different segments can be read simultaneously.

Canon has no plans to take the feat into production. Three years ago, the company also announced that it had developed an aps-h-cmos image sensor with a very high pixel density. Then the counter got stuck at 50 megapixels. That sensor also only appeared as a sample.