Canon develops APS-H size CMOS sensor with 250 million pixels

This sensor smaller than 35mm full format sensors. has been able to capture images in which it was possible to distinguish the letters written on the side of the fuselage of a plane flying 18 kilometers away.

Canon is finalizing the development of a new APS-H size CMOS sensor (approx. 29.2 x 20.2 mm) that incorporates approximately 250 million pixels (19,580 x 12,600 pixels), the world's highest number of pixels in a CMOS sensor, smaller than full-frame 35 mm sensors.

Installed in a camera, the new sensor has been able to capture images in which it was possible to distinguish the letters written on the side of the fuselage of a plane flying at a distance of approximately 18 kilometers from the place where the camera was shot.

In CMOS sensors, increasing the number of pixels results in an increase in signal volume, which can cause problems such as signal delays and small timing discrepancies.

However, the new CMOS sensor developed by Canon, despite its exceptionally high pixel count, achieves a very high signal readout speed of 1.25 billion pixels per second, which is made possible by significant advances in circuit miniaturization and improved signal processing technology. For this reason, the sensor allows you to record videos with an extraordinarily high pixel count at speeds of five frames per second.

Furthermore, despite the very high number of pixels, Canon has applied its sensor technologies, developed over many years, to realize an architecture adapted to miniaturized pixels that provides high sensitivity and low noise image results.

Video recordings made with the camera in which the approximately 250 megapixel CMOS sensor was installed offered a resolution level approximately 125 times that of Full HD video (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) and approximately 30 times that of 4K video (3,840 x 2,160 pixels). The exceptionally high definition possible with this new sensor will allow users to crop or enlarge video images, without sacrificing image resolution and clarity.