Canon’s 250MP APS-H sensor presented at ISSCC 2016

ISSCC 2016

ISSCC 2016, the International Solid‑State Circuits Conference held in San Francisco, just closed its doors. This is a specialist conference about circuits technology, something Canon with their newly developed sensors would not miss for sure. Indeed, Canon presented their 250MP APS-H sensor, a piece of technology I reported a few times in the past.

The folks at Harvest Imaging posted a summary of the presented tech. About Canon’s 250MP sensor:

Hirofumi Totsuka of Canon presented a 250 Mpixel APS-H size imager : 1.5 um pixel pitch (4 sharing) made in 0.13 um technology node.   The device is consuming 1.97 W at full resolution 5fps.  An interesting build-in feature of this sensor is the following :  ALL pixel signals are converted by column SS-ADCs with a single ramp, but in front of the ADC, each column has its own PGA that can be switched to 4x or 1x gain, depending on the signal level.  So when the pixels are sampled, a first check is done to look whether the signal is above or below a particular reference level, and then the right gain of the PGA is set to 1x or 4x.  Simple method, but I think that the issues pop up in the reconstruction of the signal at the cross-over point between the two settings of the PGA.

I wonder when we will see this sensor technology go into production.

[via Harvest Imaging]

Canon Expo 2015 in NYC overview video (14 minutes)

Jared Polin posted a 14 minutes video where he reviews all the news and technological innovations presented by Canon at their Canon Expo 2015 in NYC. If you missed the event (it’s over now) and our coverage, then Polin’s video is right for you. Everything from the 250 and 120 megapixel sensors to the ISO 4.5M camera and the 8K video camera and displays is overviewed in a funny and entertaining way.

[via FroKnowsPhoto]

Canon Develops Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics, Enables Extremely High Levels Of Chromatic Aberration Correction

Blue Refractive

Blue Refractive (BR) optical elements are employed on the new Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II lens.

Canon Develops New Camera-Lens Optical Element That Enables Extremely High Levels Of Chromatic Aberration Correction

MELVILLE, N.Y, August 27, 2015 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced that its parent company, Canon Inc., has developed Blue Spectrum Refractive (BR), a new optical element for use in camera lenses that corrects chromatic aberrations at an extremely high level to achieve superb imaging performance.

BR optical element

The new Canon-developed BR optical element offers characteristics that significantly refract blue light, which lies within the short-wavelength range, to achieve impressive levels of chromatic aberration correction for outstanding imaging performance. The BR optical element, positioned between two glass lens elements to create a BR lens, will make its debut in the new EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM wide-angle fixed-focal-length lens, which is scheduled to go on sale in October 2015.

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