This week, Canon 250MP APS-H Sensor CMOS was put on display at the China International Public Security Products Expo. Housed in a compact, box-shaped body, this sensor is available in both RGB and monochrome configurations. While the sensor’s technology represents a significant advancement, it’s not intended for consumer cameras.
Highlighting the LI8020SA Model
Canon highlighted its LI8020SA model at the expo, emphasizing its high precision for applications such as flat-panel display inspection, industrial inspection, and large-scale monitoring. Although the Canon 250MP APS-H Sensor is not new, this sensor’s performance capabilities were prominently showcased in a trade show environment for the first time. The LI8020SA has an APS-H format, which is an unusual size in the consumer market, situated between APS-C and full-frame formats. With a resolution of 19,568 by 12,588 pixels and 1.5µm x 1.5µm pixels, it supports shooting speeds of up to five frames per second.
Advanced Features
Canon has designed this sensor with advanced noise-minimizing capabilities, achieved by sharing floating diffusion capacitance between multiple pixels. This configuration allows for a larger photodiode size and compact readout circuitry, resulting in highly efficient data handling across 16 digital output channels. At its full resolution, the LI8020SA sensor reaches a speed of 5 frames per second. Faster frame rates are achievable by using single Region of Interest (ROI) windowing, allowing flexibility in image capture.
Despite its impressive specifications, the LI8020SA is tailored for specific applications, including flat-panel display inspections (for both 4K and 8K panels), industrial inspections, video production, security monitoring, wide-area surveillance, aerial mapping, digital archiving, and microscopy. As with many of Canon’s industrial sensors, this model is not expected to be available for mainstream consumer use.