Canon has announced that they’ve developed a 19-megapixel global shutter full-frame CMOS sensor. There are four different models of the same LI5030S sensor in colour, black and white, colour/near-infrared and full spectrum, all capable of shooting full resolution at up to 58 frames per second. Canon says that the new sensor will be ready to go on sale in January 2023.
But don’t get too getting too excited just yet. It looks like we probably won’t be seeing this come in an EOS R mirrorless camera. At least, not anytime soon. At the moment, it appears that this sensor is targeted more towards scientific and industrial use, rather than photographic. Use cases where being able to see full unwarped and undistorted images shot in rapid succession is often mission-critical.
Its 19-megapixel resolution of 5,688 x 3,334 makes it about 2.3 times that of 4K, providing for greater detail for industrial monitoring applications. It allows a camera to shoot a perfect representation of scenes in front of them in an instant as if they were static scenes and without the rolling shutter effect typical of CMOS sensors. Canon says it has a high sensitivity, thanks to its relatively large 6.4μm pixels, and that the company’s own-developed noise suppression technology also helps it to have a wide dynamic range for high contrast operating environments.
With more global shutter sensors appearing for industrial and scientific use over the last couple of years, hopefully, it won’t be too much longer before we see them in the kinds of cameras we use to shoot photos and video. I mean, it’s not like photographers haven’t been asking for global shutter sensors since Nikon stopped using global shutter CCD sensors (I still have my D200 and still love to drag it out occasionally). And filmmakers and video guys have been moaning about rolling shutter since day one – and often still do.
This sensor, though, probably won’t be it. We’re likely still at least a couple of generations away from being able to use these in our daily lives. To find out more about this sensor and the current state of Canon’s global CMOS shutter technology, see the Canon Japan website.
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