Canon ME20F-SH

Canon’s ISO4,500,000 camera was used to shoot this documentary in the Amazon

Oct 26, 2020 by John Aldred Add Comment

When a company like Canon, or, well, any company, really, produces a camera that claims to shoot as high as ISO 4,500,000, such as the MH20F-SH, it makes one wonder if it’s all just a marketing gimmick or if it’s actually really any good at the extremely low light levels that demand such high sensitivity.

Well, when Award-winning artist and director Lynette Wallworth released her documentary Awavena in 2018, which documented the Yawanawa in the Amazon and the Ayahuasca vision quest, it was met with much praise. The film’s director of photography, Greg Downing, has now spoken about some of the filming challenges and how the MH20F-SH helped to overcome them.

Amazing film captures biofluorescent turtles underwater at ISO 4.5 Million

Jun 8, 2017 by John Aldred 1 Comment

High ISO performance has become the new megapixel wars. Everybody wants cameras that can see in the dark, and they want them to be able to do it at ISO100 quality. There are a number of DSLRs and mirrorless camears out there with very good low light performance. The Nikon D5 and Sony A7SII, for example. But even their ISO performance can’t really compete with Canon’s ME20F-SH.

Capable of shooting up to ISO 4.5 million, this camera’s sensor records a mere 2.2 megapixels. A team of marine biologists recently put this camera to the test. To see just how good it really was. Their subject was newly discovered species of biofluorescent sea turtle in their natural habitat.

Movie captures amazing Milky Way with Canon MH20f-SH shooting at 400,000 ISO

Sep 12, 2016 by Udi Tirosh 4 Comments

I’ll admit that when Canon first launched the MH20f-SH I was kind of skeptic. I mean what in the galaxy are the uses for a 4,000,000 ISO camera?

Well, Ben Canales just proved that there are cinematic visions that can use this tool. Ben used the Canon ISO beast to shoot an exceptional video where the Milky Way is clearly showing in the footage. Not a time lapse, a video.

Ben shot this movie with a Sigma ART 20mm lens at ISO 400,000. Quite impressive right? This is about 10 stops higher than your average 400ISO. This incredible ISO allows Ben to realize a hard to film visual, live video with the Milky Way acting as background.

Canon Released an ISO Monster That Goes Up To 4,000,000 ISO

Jul 30, 2015 by Udi Tirosh 23 Comments

The new Canon camera which goes by the boring name of ME20F-SH is capable of taking photos in almost complete darkness or in Canon’s words “delivers exceptionally high sensitivity to capture Full HD video with a minimum subject illumination of less than 0.0005 lux“. This is quite extraordinary and I would usually expect this kind of a low light monster from Sony, but looks like Canon is taking the low light game seriously now. And for a good reason.

The market for low light is a niche that is not yet fully tapped into. Aside the obvious surveillance usage, Canon suggests using the camera for cinematic production, reality television, and nature/wildlife documentaries. This will definitely help you enjoy either your favorite animal or favorite Jersey shore Character in the middle of a moonless night.