Super High Resolution and High Megapixels
One thing that Canon made clear at Canon Expo 2015 is that high-resolution is clearly their focus. Be it medical imaging, prototype EOS cameras that sport 120MP and 250MP, or their EOS cinema 8k camera prototype, all of these units push out some serious megapixel love.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]A closer look revealed this Canon Cinema camera was indeed an 8k beast![/pullquote]
The first camera that caught my attention was what appeared to be a C300 filming a set that was created on the exhibition space. As I approached, I realized there were some references to 8k on the signage. A closer look revealed this Canon Cinema camera was indeed an 8k beast! There was no model I could see, perhaps it will one day be a C800? C500 Mark II? Mark III? One thing was clear, this camera paired with their 8k prototype display was amazing.
The below pictures were taken with my iPhone for convenience. One is a picture of the 30” display that was giving a live-view of the 8k camera. The next shot is the same display, just with the phone practically touching the glass of the display. Amazingly, you can barely see pixels despite such a dramatic zoom into that scene. Look at the clarity of the coffee stain on a cup you can barely see in full-view. Your probably thinking enough is enough, 1080, 4k, 5k, now 8k, what does it all mean? For the end-user watching television, probably not too much with the current average size TV’s, but on the production end it means the world.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]In essence you could build a series of shots in post from that one take. This makes for an extremely powerful post-processing workflow.[/pullquote]
Typically, in video production you would run two cameras or run a scene two times to get the tight-shot and a wide or mid-shot. This is basic filmmaking and it’s one of the elements that creates that cinematic look. However, with an 8k image, a filmmaker can shoot that same scene in a single shot. In editing an 8k image you can ‘crop’ out the tight-shot, and still have perfect 4k resolution. You could crop out that coffee cup and probably have perfect 1080P resolution. In essence you could build a series of shots in post from that one take. This makes for an extremely powerful post-processing workflow.
The next camera I came upon looked like a Canon 1DX, but was touting a 120MP camera. It was dubbed in the literature the Canon 120M (maybe “M” is for monster?). This camera was set facing down through a large white disc, elevated at about 5 feet over a display as seen below. The 120 megapixel sensor is an APS-H sized sensor, which is somewhere in-between the typical APS-C sensor and a full-frame 35mm sensor.
The floor had a series of Speedlite flashes pointing up at the disc to bounce back a nice bright, but diffused light onto the scene below. The image captured was displayed on a monitor where it was zoomed in at 100% to show the amazing detail provided by the 120 megapixel sensor.
A few weeks ago Canon announced their 250 megapixel camera, which they did have on display here at the show, but there was no live demonstrations it was placed in a display case to stop the drool from damaging it, alongside a display of the actual sensor itself.
One thing is for sure, there is research and development happening for larger and higher resolution sensors. We’ve already seen the release of the Canon 5DS which touts 50 megapixels, and not too long ago Pentax released the 645Z medium format digital camera which is more affordable than any other medium format. I suspect we will see price drops in these categories over the next five years and it certainly gives all of us gear heads a lot in which to look forward!