Timed with its announcement of the development of world’s largest CMOS sensor, Canon also said this morning that it has made the largest ever APS-H-size CMOS, delivering a whopping resolution of approximately 120 megapixels (13,280x9184 pixels).

Compared with Canon’s highest-resolution commercial CMOS sensor of the same size, comprising approximately 16.1 million pixels, the newly developed sensor features a pixel count that, at approximately 120 million pixels, is nearly 7.5 times larger and offers a 2.4-fold improvement in resolution.

Canon’s current highest-resolution commercial CMOS sensor, employed in its EOS 1Ds Mk III and 5D Mark II digital SLR cameras, is equivalent to the full-frame size of the 35 mm film format and incorporates approximately 21.1 million pixels. In 2007, the company said it had developed an APS-H-size sensor with approximately 50 million pixels.
 
“With CMOS sensors, while high-speed readout for high pixel counts is achieved through parallel processing, an increase in parallel-processing signal counts can result in such problems as signal delays and minor deviations in timing,” said Canon in a statement. “By modifying the method employed to control the readout circuit timing, Canon successfully achieved the high-speed readout of sensor signals. As a result, the new CMOS sensor makes possible a maximum output speed of approximately 9.5fps, supporting the continuous shooting of ultra-high-resolution images.

“Canon’s newly developed CMOS sensor also incorporates a Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) video output capability. The sensor can output Full HD video from any approximately one-sixtieth-sized section of its total surface area.

“Images captured with Canon’s newly developed approximately 120-megapixel CMOS image sensor, even when cropped or digitally magnified, maintain higher levels of definition and clarity than ever before. Additionally, the sensor enables image confirmation across a wide image area, with Full HD video viewing of a select portion of the overall frame.

"Through the further development of CMOS image sensors, Canon will break new ground in the world of image expression, targeting new still images that largely surpass those made possible with film, and video movies that capitalise on the unique merits of SLR cameras, namely their high mobility and the expressive power offered through interchangeable lenses.”

David Kilpatrick, one of BJP's chief contributors on technical matters, comments:

"These developments are not driven by consumer or professional demands. Applied photography – from aerial, to military, to surveillance, to broadcast – holds the prizes. When Canon's 120 megapixel experiment was announced, I wrote a brief description of its functions on Alamy's forum and admitted it was all invented only at the end.

"But was it invented, or just a logical extension of today's technology? My uses for the Canon sensor included a fixed camera covering an entire sports fields and showing the 120 megapixels in live view on a big touch screen. To make a video HD subframe track action, the operator just follows the player with a finger on the screen. Focus is no problem, with a fixed camera position the focus point is mappable for every spot on the pitch, not even any need for autofocus. The lens could even be tilted to focus the entire view perfectly at a fixed setting. Still picture? Just tap, capture the whole view or the HD crop.

"Now think of that applied to a demonstration in a city square with one camera at each corner. Tap a face, and you've captured it.

"Of course there is a use for a 120 megapixel sensor, and anything beyond, because there are requirements already out there worth the hundreds of thousands each system might cost."