Canon preparing to launch 4k DSLR on 3rd November?

While the world plus dog queues up for the latest evolution of Apple's ‘Yes, but it's so much more than a phone', you might be surprised to know that recording 1080p video and capturing 8 mega pixel photos, is NOT state of the art. In just 4 short weeks, it looks like Canon may be announcing a significant imaging revolution of their own. KitGuru pulls up a director's chair and pretends to know that depth of field has nothing to do with planting potatoes.

Entry level cameras have 6 or 8 mega pixel capture capability, cost £100 and clip into your pocket for parties where you want a better shot than a phone camera.At the serious end of image capture, the numbers get very big, and very scary, very quickly.

We'll hit you with a few and you can judge for yourself what we mean:-

1. With a 28k camera, the native resolution would be 261 mega pixels and you would be able to show your home movies, immediately, at an IMAX format cinema without the need for remastering [Perfect for my den! – Ed] .
2. A company called RED, set up by a bloke with more than a passing interest in sun glasses, can supply you with a 28k camera for just $53,000.
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3. The revolutionary camera in this field was RED's original 4k effort, first sold back in 2007, which was a 12 mega pixel affair with 4,520 by 2,540 active pixels. Remember, that's 12 mega pixels in video format, not stills.
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4. Peter Jackson (he of ‘Putting New Zealand on the map' fame) has armed himself with 30 of the latest RED cameras, in order to bring The Hobbit to our screens. That's $1.5m worth of digital camcorder for a film that's likely to gross hundreds of millions of dollars. Altogether, that's a combined capture power of 7.8 billion pixels a second. Nice.

That brings us back to Canon.

Right now, Canon's 5D Mark II camera is as popular with film makers as it is with glamour photographers. It was used to shoot the final episode of ‘House'. The BBC used the same camera to shoot its comedy series ‘Shelf Stackers' – and there are many, many more shows in the pipeline. All of which are being planned on a camera whose body costs around £1,500.

Key to the Mark II's success is the incredible depth of field capability it provides – alongside it's standard lens mount which gives budding film makers huge choice – for very little dosh.

The Mark II camera has gained this astonishing reputation, while only shooting at 1080p.

Imagine how much love (and sales) it would garner if the optic/electronic combination was able to capture at resolutions around 4096 × 2160 – at a whopping 60 frames per second.

Roll on November's launch!

KitGuru says: Whatever Canon is launching in Hollywood on 3rd November, it is likely to be a game-changer. Good timing, given that Intel is expected to launch its brand new X79 range in the same kind of time frame. Editing 4k video will provide just the sort of challenge that Intel's X79 will be looking for.

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