Canon just dropped a nuke in the megapixel war

By

Canon has developed 250-MP CMOS camera sensor.
Canon has developed 250-MP CMOS camera sensor.
Photo: Canon

Canon has developed a CMOS camera sensor that records a 250-megapixel image. Not that this should kill your excitement about the 12 megapixels you’re going to get with the camera on the new iPhone 6s, but take a moment to consider the number.

How do we even fathom 250 megapixels? Canon, in its press release boasting of the pixel count (19,580 x 12,600), said engineers zoomed in on a photo taken of an airplane from 11 miles away and could distinguish the lettering on the side of the plane.

Picture of the prototype camera Canon used to rest a 250-MP sensor.
Picture of the prototype camera Canon used to rest a 250-MP sensor.
Photo: Canon

It might be a while before we see such detail from a camera sensor. In the meantime, we can continue to debate how many megapixels a person actually needs to make a nice picture.

More megapixels means you can enlarge your photo and make a gorgeous giant print. But considering we mostly leave our pictures on our smartphones and in our Instagram feeds, you will be well-served by even the measly 8 megapixels on the soon-to-be obsolete iPhone 6 (Apple is expected to reveal a 12-MP iPhone 6s Wednesday during its annual fall new product rollout).

Canon, which introduced a 50-megapixel sensor in the Canon 5DS earlier this year, does not say they will pack this sensor in a consumer DSLR. The news release said Canon is considering it for specialized surveillance and crime prevention and various industrial applications.

Canon did not provide sample images from the sensor. Canon did, however, release pictures of the actual sensor and the crude prototype camera, equipped with a standard 35 mm, f1.4 lens. According to the news release, the resolution on the video 125 times great than Full HD.

Source: Arstechnica

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.