Thursday, August 20, 2020

Canon Develops 1/1.8-inch Sensor Capturing 1080p Video at 0.08Lux

Canon announces the launch in Japan of the LI7050, a new 1/1.8-inch CMOS sensor capable of capturing color images in full-HD even in low-illumination environments as dark as 0.08 lux. Despite a compact pixel array of 1/1.8 inches and pixel size of 4.1 µm, Canon’s newly developed LI7050 sensor makes possible color video recording in low-light environments as dark as 0.08 lux.

Security cameras equipped with the LI7050 can capture video at night in such locations as public facilities, roads or transport networks, thereby helping to identify details including the color of vehicles or subjects’ clothing. What’s more, this compact, high-sensitivity sensor can be installed in cameras for such use cases as underwater drones, microscopes and wearable cameras for security personnel.

Canon’s new sensor is also equipped with an HDR drive function that realizes a wide DR of 120 dB. When recording in an environment with illumination levels between, for example, 0.08 lux and 80,000 lux, the sensor’s wide dynamic range enables video capture without blown-out whites and crushed blacks. During normal drive operation, the sensor realizes a noise level of 75 dB and captures video without blown-out whites and crushed blacks in environments with illumination levels between, for example, 0.08 lux and 500 lux.
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​​​​​​​Canon has begun sample shipments of the LI7050 in August, and is scheduled to officially commence sales in late October 2020.


1 comment:

  1. By looking at the demo for outdoor scenes (boat on water), I feel the main advantage is really on the high light regions, not so much on the dark regions (i.e., the details in dark region didn't get enhanced that much). But on the other hand, the normal drive already outputs reasonable image. I am bit suspecting the importance of the HDR part.

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