# Review: Canon ME20F-SH by B&H Photo Explora



## Canon Rumors Guy (Dec 21, 2015)

```
B&H Photo has completed a review of the soon-to-be-released Canon ME20F-SH, the “see in the dark” video camera Canon announced back in July which caught everyone off guard. This camera is capable of a maximum ISO of 4,560,000.</p>
<p>What I find most exciting is the possibility that some of this technology is going to spill over into other parts of the Canon lineup, most notably the EOS-1D X Mark II and EOS 5D Mark IV.</p>
<p>The summary and noise performance examples are after the break.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p>From B&H Explora:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Canon ME20F-SH presents itself as a unique tool for a wide range of applications. Part cinema camera, part surveillance tool, part studio camera, the camera is ready to serve anyone who wants to capture images in extremely dark conditions without having to sacrifice color or resort to infrared lighting and sacrifice nature color reproduction. <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/video/hands-review/canon-me20f-sh-full-frame-video-camera-sees-dark/bi/2466/kbid/3296" target="_blank">Read the full review…</a></p></blockquote>
<p><object id="flashObj" width="728" height="409" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=4660708171001&playerID=4255357870001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAABgvZvL1E~,1bFySu7FCi-t1S8VRuzN5EblB58ldXlI&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=4660708171001&playerID=4255357870001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAABgvZvL1E~,1bFySu7FCi-t1S8VRuzN5EblB58ldXlI&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="728" height="409" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" allowscriptaccess="always" swliveconnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" /></object></p>
```


----------



## neuroanatomist (Dec 21, 2015)

How dare you imply that Canon is innovating where sensors are concerned, Sir. How _dare_ you!!


----------



## RGF (Dec 21, 2015)

neuroanatomist said:


> How dare you imply that Canon is innovating where sensors are concerned, Sir. How _dare_ you!!



Don't you think Canon could do better, if they really tried?


----------



## neuroanatomist (Dec 21, 2015)

Oh, sure...ISO 72,960,000 at least!


----------



## ajfotofilmagem (Dec 21, 2015)

neuroanatomist said:


> Oh, sure...ISO 72,960,000 at least!


Shooting at ISO 100 and push the shadows for 25 stops?


----------



## neuroanatomist (Dec 21, 2015)

;D


----------



## RGF (Dec 21, 2015)

ajfotofilmagem said:


> neuroanatomist said:
> 
> 
> > Oh, sure...ISO 72,960,000 at least!
> ...



72.6MM is only 19.5 (approximately) stops

25 stops would be 3,335,433,200 ISO.

Now that would be an accomplishment. Of course the camera would have a resolution of 300 x 200.


----------



## JMZawodny (Dec 21, 2015)

When the Mark II comes out and this one drops to $2k, I could be tempted. Pop a superwide or fisheye on it and you'd have a killer meteor cam. Pixels that big can hide a lot of coma.


----------



## Bennymiata (Dec 22, 2015)

I reckon it would be killer for surveillance. No lights and a perfect video of the culprit in action.


----------



## Local Hero (Dec 22, 2015)

We had one of these cameras at work on demo a few months ago.

It is amazing.

Gives a really nice image in almost complete darkness.

Canon should make this into a production camera.
It is too good just for surveillance.

They will sell a heap of these cameras for industrial uses.

I guess that is where the money is.

It has great remote control too.
Like in-built filters and remote lens control.

Has the same locking EF mount like on the C500 and C300 MK II.


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 22, 2015)

Google has me pegged for that camera. B&H ads pop up advertising it several times a day. I guess Googles finely tuned ad engine is not so good as they might have people believing.


----------



## dolina (Dec 22, 2015)

Was able to fiddle with it for a bit. I think for whoever needs the feature set will be amazed by it.


----------



## Maiaibing (Dec 22, 2015)

Would have liked to see something saturated colors to see how applicable this tech is to photography.

It could be great to have a super high-iso Canon DSLR offering like the SONY with maybe a little more MPIX such as 18-20. I'd buy one for sure.


----------



## pedro (Dec 22, 2015)

Maiaibing said:


> Would have liked to see something saturated colors to see how applicable this tech is to photography.
> 
> It could be great to have a super high-iso Canon DSLR offering like the SONY with maybe a little more MPIX such as 18-20. I'd buy one for sure.



+ 1 Count me in...


----------



## GuyF (Dec 22, 2015)

Meh. Totally blows out the highlights when you ramp up the gain. Another Canon failure.....


----------



## MickDK (Dec 22, 2015)

GuyF said:


> Meh. Totally blows out the highlights when you ramp up the gain. Another Canon failure.....



"up to 12 stops" - meh! A specialist tool when you don't need DR ;D 

Really given the pixel size and the skyhigh price I'm not impressed.


----------



## pedro (Dec 22, 2015)

MickDK said:


> GuyF said:
> 
> 
> > Meh. Totally blows out the highlights when you ramp up the gain. Another Canon failure.....
> ...



I guess, making stills you'll take a different approach. So, nothing Meh about that. They just wanted to present us quickly how things look like at 4 Mio ISO! And that's incredible. I guess, an 18 MP sensor with this tech would be good for more or less clean 104K ISO?


----------



## scyrene (Dec 22, 2015)

The IR filter was something I'd not heard about before, very impressive - I can't help but wonder what this camera could do for certain astro subjects.

I have a general question for the technical experts - given the same amount of light is being gathered by a full frame sensor regardless of the pixel size, and in some contexts we are told a higher resolution sensor downsampled should actually be cleaner (as pixel-level noise can be averaged out to a degree), how come this is so good? I thought I had a good basic understanding of stuff, but I'm back to being confused


----------



## George D. (Dec 23, 2015)

Canon Rumors said:


> What I find most exciting is the possibility that some of this technology is going to spill over into other parts of the Canon lineup, most notably the EOS-1D X Mark II and EOS 5D Mark IV.



Kubrick was there exactly 40 years ago with Barry Lyndon. For the common people, say 5D4 18/20Mp, ISO 1Million we shall have to shoot Milky Way stills all over again? ??? And if 5D5 comes with ISO 2Million all over again? I say bring a stunning ISO 100k, the rest is for spec lovers.


----------



## scyrene (Dec 23, 2015)

George D. said:


> Canon Rumors said:
> 
> 
> > What I find most exciting is the possibility that some of this technology is going to spill over into other parts of the Canon lineup, most notably the EOS-1D X Mark II and EOS 5D Mark IV.
> ...



Well he used f/0.7 lenses, that's not quite the same thing.


----------



## StudentOfLight (Dec 24, 2015)

scyrene said:


> George D. said:
> 
> 
> > Canon Rumors said:
> ...


Reminds me to pull out my Bluray Collection again. Was talking to my brother yesterday about Kubrick's genius... turns out he hasn't yet seen 2001. Can you believe that! :-[ 
I warned him I'll disown him if he doesn't watch it before new years. ;D


----------



## neuroanatomist (Dec 24, 2015)

StudentOfLight said:


> Reminds me to pull out my Bluray Collection again. Was talking to my brother yesterday about Kubrick's genius... turns out he hasn't yet seen 2001. Can you believe that! :-[
> I warned him I'll disown him if he doesn't watch it before new years. ;D



His response: "I'm sorry, Bro, I'm afraid I can't to that."


----------



## pedro (Dec 24, 2015)

George D. said:


> Canon Rumors said:
> 
> 
> > What I find most exciting is the possibility that some of this technology is going to spill over into other parts of the Canon lineup, most notably the EOS-1D X Mark II and EOS 5D Mark IV.
> ...


I'm in...


----------



## scyrene (Dec 24, 2015)

StudentOfLight said:


> scyrene said:
> 
> 
> > George D. said:
> ...



I haven't seen any of his films :/ I bought Barry Lyndon just cos I was curious about the low light stuff, but I never got round to watching it.


----------



## privatebydesign (Dec 24, 2015)

scyrene said:


> George D. said:
> 
> 
> > Canon Rumors said:
> ...



He used the 0.7 lens, but it was on the Academy format (22mm x 16mm) and then matted down even more to 1.66:1, or 22mm x 13mm, so it gave the same dof as an f1.2 lens on a ff camera.


Technical details for sure, but we are talking about cutting edge 'ultra low light level filming' with the aid of left over NASA lenses! But the kicker to all of this is Barry Lyndon was shot at 200 iso (on EI 100 film stock and pushed a stop in development), that is 14 stops brighter than this Canon ME20F-SH and people are still dissing it!

Oh how times change.........


----------

