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Technology Behind Canon’s ‘DIGIC-III Processor’

Evolution of DIGIC Processors:-

Canon had set its R&D team to develop a technology that could change the way the images were produced. It was on the lookout for a technique, using which the processing speed, the automatic focus and the image quality could be improved. The outcome was the development of the Digital Imaging Core (DIGIC) technology by Canon.

There is an image sensor in the digital camera, which converts the light that enters the camera through its lens into electrical signals. Now a Digital Image Processor is a technicality that removes the noise from these signals and generates images with natural colours and realistic effects. The DIGIC is an image processor that reduces the false colours and moiré patterns in the pictures and cancels the noise that is generated during long exposures.

The original DIGIC was used on the Canon S1 IS and other cameras. This technology was used to improve the image quality and reduce the processing speed. However, it consisted of three separate chips: a video processing integrated circuit, an image processing integrated circuit, and a camera control integrated circuit.

The DIGIC II; unlike the initial DIGIC, was all about a single chip, thus the design becoming more compact. This new version was enhanced by the addition of a large buffer and faster processing speed. It uses a Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Static RAM (DDR-SDRAM), which improves the start-up time, as well as the Auto-Focus speed. DIGIC II also improves the colour, white balance and sharpness. This technology is used in Canon EOS 400D Digital Camera, Canon EOS 5D Digital Camera, etc.

The DIGIC III processor is the advanced version of the DIGIC II processor. It has all the above mentioned qualities. Additionally, it can extend the battery life, deliver better quality images, and improve the operating speed as well. It also provides for a faster interface to the SD card memory. It also provides Face Detection Technicality, using which it can track about 9 faces in the frame and adjust the exposure, focus and flash, and provide proper lighting effects to produce explicitly realistic images. It also helps in improving the LCD screen resolution.

DIGIC III Processor:-

The circuit board of DIGIC contains a x86 compatible processor, a Datalight ROM-DOS operating system and the image processor. The DIGIC III processor consists of an embedded 32-bit ARM architecture processor.

DIGIC III Image Processor enhances the performance of the digital cameras in the following areas:-

•    JPEG Compression or Expansion

•    Memory Card Control

•    LCD Control

•    Video Processing

DIGIC III uses Advanced Noise Reduction Technology, due to which high light sensitivity can be produced. The cameras with higher light sensitivities are capable of capturing images in low light conditions with no loss to image quality and clarity. A higher light sensitivity also ensures faster shutter speed, thus reducing blurs in the images, or in fast moving pictures that refer to sports events or wildlife in action.

DIGIC III Processor has a superior processing speed, accurate auto-focus functionality, a fast camera response and continuous shooting capability. Its rate of operation and accuracy of colour reproduction, enables it to be used in Professional EOS Cameras; the Canon EOS 1000D Digital Camera, Canon S5 IS, etc.

Canon’s DIGIC technology is considered as a revolution in the digital camera industry and it emphatically displays Canon’s leadership in this industry.

In Wallace’s Scotland with Canon EOS 1000D DSLR

It was one of those long, boring days for Adrian in the office. He sat in front of his computer and tapped the keys absent-mindedly. His mind was brimming with the thoughts of the brand new Canon EOS 1000D Digital SLR Camera that he had fetched from the Evan's, the day before. He had a fine excuse for it, that he felt terribly exhausted. But why should he, in the world, choose a luxurious 10.1MP digital camera to fight his exhaustion, while he always fancied a low profile life. Of late did he cultivate this habit of conceiving the world around him. First, by means of his mobile phone's VGA camera and now, a wild leap to something that can be considered 'out of place' in his surroundings. A pleasant surprise like the 7 point wide area Autofocus of his new device that offers seven independent focus points to lock on to subjects in a giffy. Seems he is working on a whole new idea on breaking free. For, urban drudgery was definitely not his cup of tea. He had been nurturing this idea for long, which was all about a creative, as well as refreshing trip to a place, the people of which were glorified by Sir Winston Churchil as only the second to the Greeks in their contribution to mankind: Scotland. However, the producer of his priced possession, Canon would definitely not agree for a second place, as far as digital camera production is concerned.

Adrian wasted no time in catching the next flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh, the stately capital of Scotland. He did this because this was what his mind told him to do. His action resembled the 1/4000 sec fast shutter speed of his EOS 1000D. The moment he arrived in Edinburgh, Adrian felt his senses at ease. This was not his first time in Scotland, but this day he felt really different, simply for the 450g device that was clinging to the right side of his waist, on his belt. He could not wait to unleash his Canon EOS 1000D Digital SLR Camera, on his first impressions. The Compact and lightweight camera did the job perfectly. He could view the images live, on a 2.5" LCD, he could also use the EyeLevel Pentaprism optical viewfinder of this device to locate the subjects. His first shots with his brand new digital camera dealt with the bustling aspect of Scotland; the city of Edinburgh. No wonder he felt his spirits rise. Adrian then rented an economic Ford Ka, deciding to visit the castle first. After a peaceful drive around the Old Town, awed by the architecture of the tall, ethnic buildings, he decided to capture the rustic beauty of Old Town in his new camera. He stepped out of his car and positioned himself at a perfect vista. The 10.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor captured the details sharply and again Adrian saw the instant results. The medieval beauty of Old Town was captured with finesse and he felt glad he bought this compact black-beauty of dimensions 126.1x97.5x61.9mm .

Adrian drove along wide streets with stunning architecture and splendid chapels that whispered to him invitingly. He gave in to every invitation extended to his eyes. He captured all what he desired in his camera and was extremely pleased to find out that it had an EOS built-in dust prevention system that guarded his image sensor from the scathing effects of dust. By this time, he had mastered the usage of the Picture Style presets offered by this camera. He also tried customising contrast, saturation and sharpness in the device itself. Savory aroma from the numerous restaurants along the streets enticed him. Adrian stopped at an elegant-looking pub and feasted on the authentic Scottish cuisine - Baked n Stuffed Autumn Marrow, Mustard Salmon Crust With Roasted Peppers and Beans and what more, a bottle of Glenfiddich Scotch Whisky. You just cannot see through the celebrated beverage of this region; the Scotch Whisky. Scotch whisky's ways are much like EOS 1000D's offering low noise in even in high ISO speeds. The people were quiet friendly to him, although he was an Englishman. He even shot pictures with the local people, say a Scottish beauty to point out, whose beautiful emerald green eyes were captured beautifully, even in the dim light of the bar. Thanks to the built-in red-eye-reduction of this camera.

As the day wore on, Adrian decided to visit the famous castle of Edinburgh. He drove to the city center with all the eagerness in the world. Adrian knew he was nearing the castle, even without looking at it. For, all of a sudden, there seemed to be a mysterious air of royalty around him. Adrian disembarked with his precious camera. The majestic fortress seemed to be demanding respect and submission. Adrian felt insignificant, a tiny speck next to a regal grandeur. He pulled out his Canon EOS 1000D, every inch of his soul wanting to record the moment. The wide-area Auto Focus system that uses 7 separate focusing points to lock onto subjects, locked onto the castle with such perfection. The image in the LCD almost took his breath away. Adrian spent the rest of the evening, capturing the splendid castle from various angles, in various modes such as landscape, daylight preset mode of white balance and with different ISO speeds. With Canon's cutting-edge DIGIC III processor, the colour reproduction was found accurate with very fast start-up times, along with what else than low power consumption. Adrian was so full of new energy, that he spent all of the next day on a Trike tour with a chauffeur-driven Trike to the most scenic locations of the Scottish villages. His Canon’s large, bright viewfinder allowed even the brightest of landscapes to be captured with finesse. After a quiet night in the hotel, Adrian rose before the sun the next day, with his head buzzing with plans for the day. After a quick but delicious breakfast, he decided to head for one of the most historically important places of Scotland, Stirling. He took a train from Edinburgh, which was very comfortable.

Stirling, one of the most significant places in Scottish history welcomed him with a clear sky and a warm breeze. The place was so pristine, that the minute he got down from the train, Adrian started shooting pictures of everything he could see. His camera acknowledged him with its magnanimous SDcard/SDHC slot, despite its poor internal memory. With a soft touch electromagnetic shutter release, the elegant camera shot pictures with 100% coverage. Adrian contemplated on which mode to choose from; Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait, No Flash, Program AE , Shutter priority AE, Aperture priority AE, Manual, A-DEP and finally settled for Landscape. He checked into a comfortable Bed and Breakfast accommodation in Bridge of Allan, near the local station. He shot pictures of it too, and decided to make A4 size prints, for his camera had a CMOS sensor that captured enough detail to make such prints. His room was so cozy that Adrian felt like doing nothing but dozing the whole day. But definitely Stirling would never let him do that. He was down, after an hour, at the sitting room. It was a pleasant room with wide windows. A few guests sat in couples and Adrian took a chair next to a middle-aged man who was engrossed in his newspaper. He peeked in and found him reading the sports page. He knew better than anyone about the casualities, a simple discussion on football or politics can bring about in Scotland. After gulping a glass of wine and a few friendly exchanges, Adrian left for the nearest tourist attraction; The Wallace Monument.

The Wallace Monument stood on a beautiful woodland. Adrian immediately started shooting pictures. With brightness adjustable to one of seven levels, his Canon took splendid shots with explicit clarity. Adrian walked around slowly, hallucinating valiant echoes of cavalry engaged, infantry and horses, blood, death and loss. The war-cries of the English soldiers and the Scot rebels echoed in the dark recesses of his mind. He saw the glint of swords and blood-shot eyes. He saw a man as fierce as storm on a horse, Sir William Wallace. He shivered. For he was in his monument right now, a man who instilled fear in the hearts of even the bravest of English soldiers in 1297 on one fateful day - The Battle of Stirling Bridge. A battle that sow the seeds of change in the lives of many. The greatest Scottish hero of all time did deserve such an esteemed monument, thought Adrian. He stopped when he saw a sword whose hilt was bound with the skin flayed from Sir Hugh de Cressingham after the Battle of Stirling. He definitely needed to take a picture of the great sword. He selected Monochrome from the "Picture Style" menu and shot a stunner of a picture and viewed it in the LCD monitor to his heart's content. The clarity of the image made him proud, he has become a better photographer than he thought. But he knew all credits went to his Canon EOS 1000D.

Later that evening, Adrian went to Lerrocks Farm near Doune, where he shot Red Kites that came to feed. With EF-S lenses, magnification of approximately 0.81x and a vertical coverage approximately 95% , these magnificent birds were captured with refinement. After spending a few hours photographing the countryside with his trusty camera, Adrian retired to his room. That evening, just as the sun was slipping low into the blue unknown, Adrian sat in a couch in the balcony, sipping authentic Scotch whisky. He felt at peace with the world. Fire flies played by his feet. He captured that too, with his camera, for it came with the EOS 1000D for dramatic mid-action shots, that allowed continuous shooting of large JPEG images at speeds of up to 3 frames per second. It was indeed an expedition that will be etched in his mind forever. Adrian now had a bit of Scotland hidden inside his Canon EOS 1000D 10MP Digital SLR Camera. Every moment was captured for life. Adrian gave it a loving tap, for now it was his most faithful friend.

Canon IXUS 980 IS Digital Camera

Product Outline

Compact structuring is offered (W) 96.7 x (D) 27.9 x (H) 62.2 mm and weight of 160 grams. This Canon black digital camera is available in attractive black and glistening silver colours.

Every feature contributes to the well being of the unit. It supports 14.7 mega pixels which enhances clarity and adds life to the photos. Face detection technology and anti blur technology offers better pictures. Face Select & Track and Face Self-timer are various related functions. Eye seems to be the part that is highlighted when taking photos and at times eye may look frightening. This looks can be removed with Auto Red-Eye Correction feature supported by the unit.

Outstanding responses and fast pick up time is facilitated with DIGIC 4. You can zoom in and zoom out effectively with 3.7x Optical zoom and 4x Digital Zoom. The unit is compatible to video too and plays VGA movies at a speed of 30fps.

Easy to use controls

Manual controls and 20 different modes enable better handling of the unit. You can access the unit with multi control dial or either by the menu. Instant feedback is made possible with 2.5” PureColour LCD II plus OVF screen. It offers high quality display with 230,000 pixels.

Long last storage is made possible with 32MB integrated in the unit and the unit is compatible with SD, SDHC and MMC memory cards. Li-ion is the battery incorporated in the unit that offers proper functioning. With the i-Contrast feature you can highlight darker areas with extra brightness. Perfect stabilisation of the images is retrieved with optical image stabiliser of 36-133mm. Motion Detection Technology, High ISO Auto and Servo AF factors helps in exempting blur and unclear detailing.

When put together all the features and functions, an unbeatable product is evolved under the name Canon IXUS 980 IS Black Digital Camera.

Canon Digital IXUS 970 IS Digital Camera

the IXUS range has then onwards carried on the credit as a series of cameras that defines style and elegance coupled with performance. However Canon stumbled in the design front and to an extent, in the exposure compensation part in the Canon IXUS 970 IS Point and Shoot Digital Camera. Ergonomically it has failed too. The lozenge shaped on-off button is recessed and the zoom rocker wheel has limited range of motion.

There is a mode selection wheel on the back of the Canon IXUS 970 IS with four buttons and a D-pad. However, the IXUS 970 has an elegant curve towards the edge for a stylish feel. There are other noteworthy specifications too that we will see with the Canon IXUS 950 IS. Its body is materialised of top quality metal. It also has a 2.5" pure color high resolution LCD display. The Canon IXUS 970 IS 10mp has a 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor. Its 5x optical zoom (f/3.2-f/5.7 lens comes equivalent to a 37-185mm lens. It has a TTL type focussing with AiAF (Face Detection/9-point) and 1-point AF (fixed to centre or face select and track). AF point selection refers to size (normal, small) and AF lock On/Off selectable. There is an AF assist beam with its closest focusing distance being 2cm from the front of the lens in macro. The exposure control is evaluative linked to face detection AF frame, centre-weighted average, and spot. AE lock is selectable on/off.

Some of the more specialized features include enhanced optical image stabilization, motion detection and face detection AF. It has an advanced DIGIC III Image processor with iSaps technology. It supports colour emphatically having a sensor resolution of 10,000,000 pixels, apart from a tremendous white balance support. It is light sensitive with ISO 100 to ISO 3200, although there is much noise at higher ISO values. It has a 4x Digital Zoom and a movie mode too. A Few shooting programs that the camera supports are; the portrait mode, fireworks, sunset, indoor, beach, digital and macro. It has an optical image stabilizer and a max shutter speed of 1/1500 of a second and a minimum shutter speed of 15 seconds. It has evaluative, spot, and centre-weighted exposure metering with automatic and programme exposure modes. Motion detection technology works on the principles of inputs and a wide array of algorithms, to intellegently track shake and subject movements. It supports face detection and has custom, automatic, presets for white balance. It captures still images in the JPEG format.

There are 9 auto focus points and a minimum focus range of 50cm. Its macro focus range is 2-50 cms and its zoom adjustment refers to motorised drive. The Canon Digital IXUS 970 IS is an intelligent camera. A redesigned optical image stabiliser system renders a 4-stop advantage making photography under low light possible. This camera has a self-timer too. Some of the additional features of the camera include audio recording, direct print, motion sensor, USB 2.0 compatibility, digital noise reduction, date/time stamp, Digital Image Rotation, DPOF support, camera orienation detection, Pictbridge support, AE lock, histogram display, AF lock, FE lock, resizing an image, built-in red eye fix, highlight point display, in-camera film editing, automatic face tracking technology, EXIF print support and face detection.

The view finder is of the optical-real image zoom sort. The power devices of this Canon 10MP digital camera are; an external battery charger and a 1x Li-ion rechargeable battery. Other features of the camera include red-eye correction, my category, my camera, sound memo, intelligent orientation sensor, histogram, play back zoom. Canon IXUS 970 IS 10MP Digital Camera can be interfaced to your computer using a USB high speed dedicated connector. It supports the SD, SDHC, MMC, MMCplus, HC MMCplus, along with the 32MB memory card supplied. There are modes in which you can play movies and this includes Long play (LP) for VGA clips occupying only half the normal memory card space. The camera also features an HC multimedia card plus.

Canon Digital IXUS 75 Digital Camera

Its 7.1MP sensor offers an Ultra-high refractive index to the 3x optical zoom and this sensor (35-105mm equivalence)  poses a unique eye for detail even in the case of poster size images. This digital camera has a large 3” LCD screen that supports 230000 pixels.

Canon’s DIGIC III Image Processor, which is also familiar to the DSLR range is the powerful magic brain that enables face detection and noise reduction technology. Smartly using these aspects, it provides lightning quick responses and better image quality. There is a new red-eye correction in the play-back mode. ISO speeds with a maximum of ISO 1600, along with a new ISO auto shift function that predicts camera shake to reduce image blur, appear in the image correction part of this device. iSAPS, in this device, takes a prudent look around each scene and settings ensuring optimal quality output.

Add to this, its cutting edge design, a chic metallic finish with a black ring around the lens, and an extra-large LCD. Canon Digital IXUS 75 7.1MP Digital Camera is definitely styled to stand out of the lot. The LCD display is the arena, where you can compose and review your shots in rich vivid detail. Pure color lets you reproduce colour as it is, while you indulge in photography and also enables a sharper resolution. This Canon compact digital camera features include a touch control dial for better handling of the buttons of the slim camera, 17 shooting modes for shooting under specific situations, and My Colors, with which you can use the in-camera color options to play with your image color output, VGA movies, and Time Lapse movies. Low light conditions will not prevent you from taking your photographs and you can now even shoot under dim-light settings or places, where flash photography is prohibited. There are some short-cut buttons too here that gives you one touch access to your favorite controls and you can skip between shooting and play-back modes with the play-back button.

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