The Canon APS-H sensor, lately of the Canon 1D Mark III, with its 1.3x crop factor is looking more and more the orphan. If true, and the inference comes mainly comes from Canon USA’s inscrutable Chuck Westfall, it will be missed.
The APS-H sensor sits squarely between the full frame sensors found in the Canon 1Ds series as well as the Nikon D3, and the 1.6x crop, APS-C sensor that is found in just about every other DSLR on the planet.1 While there isn’t quite the telephoto bump of the APS-C sensor, the 1.3x crop is kinder to wide angles.
Canon has held the 1D Mark III sensor to 10 megapixel. Physics being what it seems to be, the larger photo sites beat smaller. The combination of just a bit bigger sensor along with some welcomed restraint by Canon’s pixel packing engineers, results in image quality that is as good as a very small group of DSLR’s.
As compromises go, it’s a good one.
1 There is a smaller yet standard for DSLR’s. The Four Thirds System format isn’t as popular as the APS-C but the small size of the sensor, along with some nice engineering, result in some very interesting products