Mar 30, 2009 11:00 AM
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There's a rumor afoot suggesting that Canon will be ditching CCD and adopting CMOS chips for a new pro-level camcorder. Digital cameras and camcorders never been so indistinguishable.
If the rumor is true, Canon will be adopting sub-35mm dSLR sensors (APS-C sized CMOS, or what you see in entry level dSLRs like the Rebel) into their elite camcorders. It's not a completely new idea. The Red One has long used a CMOS chip to record 4k video, and Canon makes use of a CMOS in the $1000ish Vixia. But with Canon choosing CMOS for a pro-level camcorder, it pretty much means that CCD (the preferred video chip format of the last several decades) is dead. (Once we saw dSLRs shooting 1080p, we knew this day wasn't far off.) As for the mystery cam itself:
The sub-$8,000 camcorder is said to resemble the XL-H1 (above), accepting EOS lenses and featuring a 12.1MP CMOS that can film 1080p video at 60fps/120hz—that's MPEG4 encoded at a max rate of 56Mbps. We're not sure how the camera will record this much data though the Red One offers CompactFlash, RAID and SSD options. There's also word of a 12bit video RAW format that will require a $4,000ish IO box providing SDI and USB 3 output.
And for the first time in some time, Canon's prosumer camcorders are exciting again. [canonrumors]
Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.
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