Canon announced today that it is developing a compact high-sensitivity network camera that will make possible the clear viewing in color of distant subjects even under conditions that would prove challenging to the naked eye, such as at night with few ambient light sources The network camera being developed by Canon will feature a large-aperture ultra-telephoto zoom lens with a focal length of more than 600 mm (35 mm film equivalent) that achieves a bright F-value of 2.4 to allow large amounts of light to enter. The lens will incorporate aspherical and UD (Ultra Low Dispersion) lens elements that suppress the incidence of chromatic aberrations, which become more prevalent as a lens’s aperture size increases, while making possible a compact lens unit.
The combination of the large-aperture lens with a high-sensitivity sensor and high-performance image processor will enable the color recognition of a subject’s face at a distance of 100 meters even in dark environments with a mere 0.08 lux of illumination, roughly equivalent to the illuminance of moonlight. Through the combination of an electric-drive pan/tilt function that control’s the camera’s orientation with the ultra-telephoto zoom lens, the network camera will be able to fulfill a wide range of surveillance requirements. . The camera’s imaging capabilities will make it ideally suited for such surveillance applications as crime prevention and the monitoring of natural disaster sites, enabling the viewing of scenes during either night or day. Canon aims to commercialize the new network camera in 2016.
