Canon unveils a new CMOS sensor with super-powered 120MP resolution

Canon has a booth at the 2019 Sensors Expo & Conference in San Jose, California this year in order to introduce its latest, most sensitive and highly accurate imaging technology. Its probable flagship thereof is the 120MXSI sensor, which, as the name suggests, can image at a resolution of 120MP.

Canon claims that the 120MXSI can be used to shoot images of this potential accuracy and clarity in the visible and NIR ranges. It apparently does so at a maximum rate of 9.4 frames per second, and can take simultaneous or individual shots. Admittedly, this super-CMOS is currently intended for use in the areas of healthcare, robotics or image-sensing in machine learning. However, this breakthrough may inform the direction of more consumer-grade sensors in the future; Samsung already has a 64MP mobile-device module, for one thing.

The 120MXSI is also joined at the expo by another interesting CMOS, the 35MMFHDXSMA. At 2.7MP, it is not as powerful in the same way. However, Canon asserts that it can detect objects in ultra-low light, where human eyes would be completely ineffectual. It may be twice as sensitive in this way than its predecessor, the 35MMFHDXSCA; this is because the company has removed the color-sensing filters this time around. The 35MMFHDXSMA may be best suited to cellular or biological imaging, astronomy or disaster-zone monitoring.