Canon’s new MM100-WS modular action cam

[Dashmellow]

Canon has just announced an interesting new modular cam action. There's not much info on it as yet but it is very small and is capable of shooting in extremely low light, down to 1 Lux. Looks pretty interesting. No word on pricing yet.

MELVILLE, N.Y., September 12, 2017 – "Canon U.S.A., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced that its parent company, Canon Inc., is leveraging the Company’s celebrated and longstanding optical and sensor technologies to develop a new Multi-Purpose Module Camera, the MM100-WS, designed to provide business imaging solutions for new and established companies. Canon Inc. plans to have the new multi-purpose module camera on display in the Canon booths at upcoming tradeshows and events.

The Canon MM100-WS Multi-Purpose Camera features a compact body size of approximately 1.57 in (w) x 1.57 in (h) x .85 in (d) - (40 mm x 40 mm x 21.6 mm). The multi-purpose module camera has a highly customizable body designed to accommodate various module solutions and features a high-level of dust and moisture resistance and durability needed for a wide range of applications. In addition, the camera is capable of capturing images in low-light environments with as little as 1 lux of illumination1.

Upon request, Canon will make available the camera’s Application Programming Interface (API)2, further expanding the customization capabilities of the MM100-WS for a wide range of solutions. Due to its compact body and high scalability, the MM100-WS is an excellent option for video content creation for professional and industrial applications, such as monitoring in narrow spaces, piping inspections, automotive industry, and as a support tool for numerous varieties of verticals.

In the future, to help support businesses utilizing the camera, Canon will develop various modules, accessories and software for the camera to be further customized, helping to meet the needs of end-users and a variety of applications."

 

[TonyM]

I have a friend who is a Canon ambassador, who's at the IBC right now. He usually gets to play with the new stuff.... I'll see if he can get his hands on one of these

 

[Dashmellow]

It will definitely be interesting to see what this camera can do considering it's size. It's tiny! At 1.57 (H) x 1.57 inches (W) x .85 inches (D) it is essentially in the same size class as the Mobius but with a different lens placement. The Mobius 2 camera for example measures 2.5 inches (L) (excluding the lens bezel) x 1.375 inches (W) x .6875 inches (D) .

 

[Dashmellow]

As yet there is virtually no information available about the specs or various design goals of the MM100-WS but I was able to dig up an intriguing graphic from Canon that suggests that among other interesting uses the camera is specifically intended to perform as a dash cam! That would be a first from a major camera maker like Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc.



It seems that the MM100-WS is part of an entire new "imaging solutions business" that Canon intends to enter into, so it appears that the MM100-WS will be highly multi-purposed. "In the future, to help support businesses utilizing the camera, Canon will develop various modules, accessories and software for the camera to be further customized, helping to meet the needs of end-users and a variety of applications."

 

[TonyM]

Well my Canon friend at the IBC says he's not got to use it yet. It's a working concept, which may not make it to market.

 

[TonyM]

As yet there is virtually no information available about the specs or various design goals of the MM100-WS but I was able to dig up an intriguing graphic from Canon that suggests that among other interesting uses the camera is specifically intended to perform as a dash cam! That would be a first from a major camera maker like Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc.

View attachment 33285

It seems that the MM100-WS is part of an entire new "imaging solutions business" that Canon intends to enter into, so it appears that the MM100-WS will be highly multi-purposed. "In the future, to help support businesses utilizing the camera, Canon will develop various modules, accessories and software for the camera to be further customized, helping to meet the needs of end-users and a variety of applications."

It looks like they're aiming to match the modular design with various businesses. Probably more aimed at partnering with a car manufacturer for a built in dashcam, than with a smaller company making the add-on dashcams we talk about here. However the image you found does show a camera hanging from a suction cup, so maybe they are interested in a partnership with someone like Viofo. Definitely something to keep watching out for. I'll update here if I hear anything more from Canon.

 

[Dashmellow]

The web site Cinema5D has an article, "Canon Modular Camera In The Works" which talks about the camera being "capable of fulfilling many roles, from a body cam to a studio and broadcast-capable tool." It quotes a rep from the company as
saying, "this new Canon modular camera will only be a couple of centimetres thick and will incorporate a non-removable wide-angle lens that will allow it to be dust and splash proof. The battery will only be 1cm thick, allowing the whole package to remain quite compact, recording internally to MicroSD cards" The repeated use of the word "will" makes it sound like the camera is going to actually come to the market.

Personally, I don't see a premier camera company like Canon partnering with an outfit like Viofo or licensing their technology any time soon. This would be a high end, ground breaking camera that is intended for industrial, studio and broadcast work as well as possible consumer use. This is a camera with a lot of their latest proprietary technology in it and I expect Canon will want its name on it if and when it does enter the marketplace, especially if it represents an entire new business category for them. In some ways this camera could easily fit in with some of their high end multipurpose modular video products like the ME20F-SH & ME200S-SH. I guess time will tell.

Seems like a lot of interesting things are happening in the tiny high end camera field from major brands. There's the new Sony RXO, and Nikon and Olympus have introduced high end action cameras. Unlike all the other action cams and dash cams on the market today which use off-the-shelf components, these four companies design and manufacture their own sensors, lenses, microprocessors and other components. These are actual "cameras" built to very exacting standards compared to virtually all dash cams and most action cameras which are at heart essentially "gadgets" composed of a PCB screwed into a plastic housing with a screen and some buttons, just like a Gameboy.

 

[kamkar]

Wooooo if Canon think the camera can go on a "pig" thru pipelines, that's a high pressure environment if there ever was one, at least if its a "pig" in oil or natural gas pipelines.

I like where Sony and Canon are going with this

 

[Dashmellow]

Wooooo if Canon think the camera can go on a "pig" thru pipelines, that's a high pressure environment if there ever was one, at least if its a "pig" in oil or natural gas pipelines.

I like where Sony and Canon are going with this

As I mentioned above, virtually all dash cams are "gadgets" built like plastic toys not unlike the way a Gameboy is manufactured. In other words, a circuit board and other components screwed into molded-in stand-offs in a thin plastic housing. As long as that is the norm, dash cams will continue to experience heat and cold related expansion and contraction issues that lead to problems like focus shifts and related failures in a challenging automotive environment. While efforts such as the use of a metal lens barrel and module base may help somewhat to keep the lens in focus, as long as the rest of the camera components are subject to heat and cold related warping there will still be problems. For several months now, despite a lot of push back from @jokiin and certain others around here I've been advocating for manufacturers to the adopt techniques used in virtually all surveillance cameras. (and professional video and still cameras) By that I mean the use of metal or fiber reinforced plastic external housings and an internal rigid chassis (usually metal) that securely supports the PCB, other components and lens to prevent warping.

What I find so interesting, but certainly not surprising is that all four major camera manufacturers entering the miniature video camera market such as Nikon, Canon, Sony and now Olympus have all created products employing significantly rigid housings and other build components because that is how true cameras are built, as opposed to mere gadgets. Not only will these products take a significant amount of abuse but they are highly likely to do so without going out of focus. No doubt the Canon MM100-W is built to endure the conditions inside an industrial pipeline and return imagery with absolute clarity.

Sony actually goes to the trouble of explaining what they do to achieve the required rigidity in their new RXO action/production camera and use this to promote the product. The camera is built with a hardened Duralumin alloy chassis to create an extremely strong camera that supports and protects the internal components. I found it interesting to see this as it is exactly what I've been talking about.

 

[kamkar]

Tough are nice indeed, i can tell you i had nightmares about dropping my Sj cameras as they dont make me feel sure they will keep together even in a modest impact scenario.

Do like the Olympus TG tracker and the TG5 shooter like camera, only gripe i have with the "as is" tough and waterproof cameras are the weak link are then the exposed lens.
But it also sem all have a solution for that in their assortment / bundle.

I can sort of see why dashcam makers cant be bothered with that tough, but i have to admit i wouldn't mind a dashcam that i could throw thru a side window and then the one on the other side, and then put it in my windscreen and drive away.

 

[Dashmellow]

Tough are nice indeed, i can tell you i had nightmares about dropping my Sj cameras as they dont make me feel sure they will keep together even in a modest impact scenario.

Do like the Olympus TG tracker and the TG5 shooter like camera, only gripe i have with the "as is" tough and waterproof cameras are the weak link are then the exposed lens.
But it also sem all have a solution for that in their assortment / bundle.

I can sort of see why dashcam makers cant be bothered with that tough, but i have to admit i wouldn't mind a dashcam that i could throw thru a side window and then the one on the other side, and then put it in my windscreen and drive away.

With dash cams, it's not a question of whether you could throw it through a window (although it could be) but whether the camera can perform reliably for extended periods in the typical extreme conditions that exist when mounted on a vehicle windshield. I keep using the example of video surveillance cameras because most of them (except the vandal proof type) don't have to endure high impact but they do have to function 24/7/365 in all kinds of extreme conditions. My CCTV cams can sit all day in the blazing hot sun on the hottest days and then in the winter function perfectly at 15-20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. They have NEVER gone out of focus or had an electronic component failure after years of full time service. It was only over the last few months when I started tearing down old CCTV cams and seeing how just how they are designed and built that I reached the conclusion that the current approach to building dash cams is essentially ill-suited for the purpose. They need to be built more rigidly in a similar way t0 CCTV cameras which are designed and built for wide temperature extremes because dash cams are de facto miniature CCTV cameras.

Edit: BTW, all of my CCTV cams despite their high build quality are in the same general price range as a high quality dash cam and significantly less that some of them.

 

[kamkar]

My friend had a couple of analog CCTV cameras that needed to be refocused after a while, and also had 4 of them die on him within a few years ( assume electronic failure as it wasent flooding and it was 2 black housings 1 silver and 1 white )
Also he had a few where the PCB with the IR lights had to be replaced.

But yeah i get you and also followed that other debate in here in this regard.

I am not quite convinced that a rigid case ASO in ALU would make the heat related focus shift less of a issue, maybe if the case was white like many / most CCTV cameras then it would at least take some of the sun induced heat off the camera and bounce it back where it came from.
I would be prone to assuming just a naked PCB with the proper lens and other components would cope just as well in a windscreen, but i am guesstimating here.

Could be fun to install a temp logger in a CCTV housing just to see what kind of temperatures it actually see during a sunny day when its cooking ( i think some CCTV cameras actually have a temp probe )

 

[Dashmellow]

My friend had a couple of analog CCTV cameras that needed to be refocused after a while, and also had 4 of them die on him within a few years ( assume electronic failure as it wasent flooding and it was 2 black housings 1 silver and 1 white )
Also he had a few where the PCB with the IR lights had to be replaced.

But yeah i get you and also followed that other debate in here in this regard.

I am not quite convinced that a rigid case ASO in ALU would make the heat related focus shift less of a issue, maybe if the case was white like many / most CCTV cameras then it would at least take some of the sun induced heat off the camera and bounce it back where it came from.
I would be prone to assuming just a naked PCB with the proper lens and other components would cope just as well in a windscreen, but i am guesstimating here.

Could be fun to install a temp logger in a CCTV housing just to see what kind of temperatures it actually see during a sunny day when its cooking ( i think some CCTV cameras actually have a temp probe )

I've been thinking about placing a temperature probe inside one of my CCTV cams but I just haven't had time for a project like that lately. FWIW, all my CCTV cams are charcoal grey. In my view, the color is less important than the rigidity of the chassis and the heat sinking. I've dismantled several old cameras at this point and some are better built that others.

Yes, I've had some IR emitter failures too but they all failed near the end of their rated lifespan of tens of thousands of hours. All the failures I've experienced with CCTV cams have been related to cable issues in one way or another. One failed because the on-screen menu came on and wouldn't go away but the problem was due to the little joystick controller on the cable. I'd been dealing with that intermittently for some amount of time and it finally failed completely.

This is a photo found on CCTV forums. (a white cam) It shows some of what I am talking about. Notice the PCB is mounted with six screws (one is hidden) on a thick cast metal heat sinking chassis inside a rigid metal housing. This camera is BUILT!

 

[Lola]

The web site Cinema5D has an article, "Canon Modular Camera In The Works" which talks about the camera being "capable of fulfilling many roles, from a body cam to a studio and broadcast-capable tool." It quotes a rep from the company as
saying, "this new Canon modular camera will only be a couple of centimetres thick and will incorporate a non-removable wide-angle lens that will allow it to be dust and splash proof. The battery will only be 1cm thick, allowing the whole package to remain quite compact, recording internally to MicroSD cards" The repeated use of the word "will" makes it sound like the camera is going to actually come to the market.

Personally, I don't see a premier camera company like Canon partnering with an outfit like Viofo or licensing their technology any time soon. This would be a high end, ground breaking camera that is intended for industrial, studio and broadcast work as well as possible consumer use. This is a camera with a lot of their latest proprietary technology in it and I expect Canon will want its name on it if and when it does enter the marketplace, especially if it represents an entire new business category for them. In some ways this camera could easily fit in with some of their high end multipurpose video products like the ME20F-SH & ME200S-SH.
I guess time will tell. Seems like a lot of interesting things are happening in the tiny high end camera field from major brands. There's the new Sony RXO, and Nikon and Olympus have introduced high end action cameras. Unlike all the other action cams and dash cams on the market today which use off-the-shelf components, these four companies design and manufacture their own sensors, lenses, microprocessors and other components. These are actual "cameras" built to very exacting standards compared to virtually all dash cams and most action cameras which are at heart essentially "gadgets" composed of a PCB screwed into a plastic housing with a screen and some buttons just like a Gameboy.

Cannon might very well be thinking about the Police Cam ! With all the talk about what's actually going on with the police that would be a very large audience for Cannon, not to mention the Military as well, maybe even politicians! Times are changing fast, people want to know the truth, I believe cameras are on the way to fill gaps that currently exist.

Maybe we will even finally get a recognizable few features on UFO pictures supplied by the public !