TOKYO, March 19, 2014—Canon Inc. and Canon Marketing Japan Inc. announced today Canon’s entry into the industrial camera market with the launch in Japan of the M15P-CL, a still-image camera featuring low-noise, high-pixel-count imaging performance to support quality inspections during manufacturing processes.
Ideally suited to perform quality inspections for liquid crystal panels, solar panels and optical components employed in digital SLR cameras, the Canon M15P-CL is designed to satisfy the manufacturing industry’s need to deliver high-precision quality. While conventional inspection procedures had relied on the human eye, the shift to cameras capable of high-resolution detection is expected to fuel future market growth. Taking advantage of this market trend, Canon has applied the technological strengths the Company has cultivated through its existing camera business to enter the industrial camera market.
The M15P-CL incorporates a newly developed, approximately 15-megapixel black-and-white CMOS sensor based on the high-sensitivity CMOS sensor employed in Canon’s EOS series of interchangeable-lens cameras. Achieving a high dynamic range with low noise, the sensor makes possible inspections with high-contrast imaging. As a result, even when used in low-contrast inspection environments, the camera supports the capture of high-definition monochrome-gradation images, enabling the accurate detection of scratches, foreign matter and other defects that the human eye would be incapable of easily discerning.
Offering low-noise analog gain from 1 to 16 times and digital gain from 1 to 16 times, the M15P-CL lets users take advantage of the camera’s low-noise imaging performance to boost sensitivity up to a maximum of 256 times.
Additionally, the new Canon M15P-CL supports the Camera Link interface standard. Widely used within the industrial camera sector, Camera Link makes possible the high-speed transfer of images captured by the camera.
The Canon M15P-CL will go on sale in Japan on March 19, 2014, at an open price. Canon has set initial production at 50 units per month.
