Leibson's Law

Last month, Nikon introduced the 12.3-Mpixel D90, the world’s first dSLR with video.

Today Canon fired back by introducing the EOS 5D Mk II dSLR, a full-frame, 21.1-Mpixel dSLR that can also record 1080p HD video. It was a much anticipated introduction. There are several interesting innovations in the new Canon dSLR. Central to the camera is the 21.1-Mpixel sensor, which employs microlenses that are bigger then the CMOS receptor sites to gather as much light as possible. As a result, the EOD 5D Mk II dSLR sports an ISO sensitivity range of 50 to 25,600(!!!). It remains to be seen what the noise looks like at the high ISO settings.

To handle that many pixels and get them into Flash memory while shooting at full resolution at the camera’s maximum rated 3.9 frames/sec, Canon developed a new image-processing chip called the DIGIC 4. Canon’s existing DIGIC III processor was already recognized as a very fast image processor. DIGIC 4 is reported to be 30% faster. Reportedly, the 1080p, 30-frames/sec video encoding is performed by a separate H.264 chip. Canon also introduced five other cameras today, all based on the DIGIC 4 processor: the Powershot G10, a 15-Mpixel compact camera; the 10-Mpixel PowerShot SX1 IS and PowerShot SX10 IS cameras; the 15-Mpixel Digital IXUS 980 IS compact camera; and the 10-Mpixel Digital IXUS 870 IS compact camera.

Canon had previously introduced the Digi 4 processor with its 15-Mpixel EOS 50D dSLR. According to Canon, the “DIGIC 4 Image Processor offers finer details and even more natural color reproduction, compared with the previous DIGIC III Image Processor. Since Canon's DIGIC 4 chips use advanced signal processing technologies, they provide even faster operations, including write times to UDMA cards. [The DIGIC 4 processor] also enables Face Detection Live mode to detect and focus up to 35 face(s) to capture the best possible shot. Further, DIGIC 4 offers the improved Auto Lighting Optimizer that corrects brightness and contrast automatically, and Peripheral Illumination Correction for up to 40 EF lenses.” The DIGIC 4 processor also handles the 14-bit data coming from the image sensor.

DIGIC 4 is an ASIC developed by Canon engineers. It incorporates proprietary image-processing algorithms developed by Canon. This ASIC is a good example of how systems companies can differentiate their products with processing horsepower and proprietary algorithms. However, it’s clear from these cameras that processing differentiation alone isn’t nearly enough in the camera market. Sensors, optics, user interfaces, and other features (like video) are equally important.

And yes, yes, yes, I want one. List price for the body is $3499 $2699.

[UPDATE] By a strange coincidence, DSP guru and BDTI president Jeff Bier published an opinion piece in his Inside DSP newsletter this same day covering the philisophy behind Canon's series of DIGIC image processors (although he doesn't explicitly discuss Canon). The article, titled Proprietary Algorithms Key for Embedded Processor Vendor, discusses product differentiation through algorithm optimization. Bier wrote:

Processor prices are dropping, while processor performance is increasing. Every year you get a lot more bang for the buck, and it’s getting easier and cheaper to implement a wide range of embedded applications on lots of different processors. But chip vendors still need to differentiate their offerings.  One way to do this is for them to offer proprietary algorithms that can only (or most efficiently) be used in conjunction with the vendor’s particular processor...