Here’s a Look at Some Crazy Technology Canon Is Cooking Up

Canon Expo kicks off this week but we’ve already been offered a glimpse at what the company’s engineers are cooking up in their labs. None of these technologies are arriving soon, but they’re still a technological marker in the sand for Canon and a glimpse at what the medium-term future holds. Spoiler alert: a ton of pixels.

This is what a 250-megapixel camera prototype looks like.

Here’s a look at what Canon is building:

* A 120-megapixel DSLR with EF mount: Canon says that the “high-resolution images that the camera will be capable of producing will recreate the three-dimensional texture, feel and presence of subjects, making them appear as if they are really before one’s eyes.” RAW files will measure in at 232MB. Memory card company stocks will skyrocket.

*An 8K video camera: According to Canon, this Super 35 mm-equivalent CMOS sensor will record 8,192 x 4,320 resolution video, or 35-megapixels. It will deliver frame rates up to 60 fps with 13 stops of dynamic range. The camera body will have an EF mount and Canon says that 78 out of 96 EF lenses in its current lineup will be compatible with the 8K camera.

* A 250-megapixel APS-H-sized sensor: This one is really aimed at commercial applications like surveillance cameras. Despite the ridiculous amount of pixels, Canon said it’s still capable of shooting at 5 fps. The video off the sensor would deliver resolution that’s 30x that of a 4K camera. 

To paraphrase Jaws, we’re going to need bigger hard drives.