My Cart

MS-500

As low as $0.00
Out Of Stock
  • Long-range ultra-high-sensitivity low-light camera
  • Features the Canon-designed and developed 1-inch Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) Sensor with approx. 3.2 million pixels
  • B4 mount that supports Canon’s lineup of ultra-telephoto 2/3-inch broadcast zoom lenses
  • Custom Picture Preset options available to prioritize wide dynamic range or noise reduction
  • Custom Picture Mode allows users to create up to 20 customized image quality settings for various shooting conditions
  • Haze Compensation and Smart Shade Control features reduce the effects of haze and mist while automatically adjusting contrast and image brightness
  • Full color Infrared shooting (Night Mode)
  • RS-422 serial remote control interface
  • Camera control, pan-tilt head control, and video distribution via IP network communication

In the box

Overview

The MS-500 Ultra-High-Sensitivity Camera

The MS-500 is the first advanced long-range low-light camera from Canon, which was developed for viewing remote objects at a distance of several miles in color – day or night.

This camera is equipped with the ultra-high-sensitivity Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) sensor and the B4 mount1 that can support Canon broadcast lenses, enabling capture of long-range objects even in low light.

MS-500 Camera Body

Features

Equipped with an Innovative Ultra-high Sensitivity SPAD Sensor

The SPAD sensor captures the brightness of a subject by digitally counting each incoming light particle (photon) through a method called photon counting, which is completely different from the conventional CMOS sensor.

SPAD Sensor

Conventional CMOS sensors accumulate electrons generated by light as electric charge and converts them into digital signals and reads them out. With the SPAD sensor, when even one photon reaches a pixel and generates an electron the sensor instantaneously2 multiplies the electron by approximately 1 million times by the electron avalanche effect3 and outputs it as an electrical pulse signal. By counting the number of these pulses, the amount of incident light can be detected as a digital value.

This allows the SPAD sensor to detect light more accurately with less noise compared to CMOS sensors, which accumulate light particles as analog signals. The analog signals must be converted to digital before being read out, resulting in noise contamination.

SPAD vs CMOS

Ideal for Low-light, Long-range Shooting

The MS-500 incorporates the SPAD sensor with approx. 3.2 million pixels, the highest in the world4. With this large pixel number achieved by minimizing pixel pitches to approx. 6.39 μm, the MS-500 can capture Full HD high-resolution color images with a small sensor.

Sensor Pixels

Broadcast Lens B4 Mount and Built-in Magnifying Optical System

The MS-500 features the Broadcast Industry standard B4 mount1, allowing it to take advantage of Canon's extensive lineup of broadcast lenses.

Since most broadcast lens optics are designed for 2/3” sensors, the MS-500 has a built-in magnifying optical system5 that matches the built-in 1-inch sensor, allowing the lens to be attached directly to the camera mount for shooting without cropping the sensor pixels. Canon broadcast lenses incorporate excellent technology accumulated through years of development of high image quality and high-performance lenses to meet the advanced performance requirements of the MS-500.​

Broadcast Lens B4 Mount

Custom Picture Presets

Choose between gamma and noise reduction settings to best suit your use case. Available presets will give the option to prioritize between noise reduction, wide dynamic range, or optimization for monitoring use cases in dark environments.

Users can also create their own Custom Picture Presets, custom-tailored to their shooting environments by saving various image quality settings to the camera. The settings (gain, sharpness, noise reduction, among others) are customizable, can be named, stored in-camera, and later recalled to shoot specific scenes. Users can quickly adjust the desired image quality by selecting from a list of saved Custom Picture Presets when needed.

Camera screen capture of CrispImg2 Preset

Infrared Shooting (Night Mode)

With infrared shooting in Night Mode, the MS-500 camera’s filter on the front of the SPAD sensor switches from an infrared cut filter to an infrared transmission filter, increasing the amount of infrared light that reaches the sensor. With the camera’s Auto White Balance feature (AWB), the typically red image shot with infrared shooting is automatically color-corrected with natural colors. The Night Mode Color Level feature further boosts AWB with 14 levels6 of redness correction to finely adjust the video according to the scene.

Infrared Shooting

Haze Compensation

 

The MS-500 features three levels of Haze Compensation strength to help reduce the effects of haze and mist, expanding the brightness range from high to low and correcting for high contrast video with improved visibility. This corrects video contrast automatically to show the subjects more clearly.

Smart Shade Control

The Smart Shade Control feature helps enhance detail in the shadows and in dark areas of the video, allowing for better viewing of subjects that would not have been visible otherwise. It also adjusts the subject brightness and corrects to prevent blown-out highlights in bright areas when the subject is difficult to see in backlight scenes.

Smart Shade Control before and after comparison

Camera and Lens Control

The MS-500 camera is equipped with an Ethernet port that can be used to remotely control the camera using NU, Pelco-D or ONVIF protocols and access its video output over IP. Serial communication is also available for camera control and pan-tilt head control. Remote operation allows for more subtle manipulations and fine adjustments when shooting at a long distance with an ultra-telephoto lens with a very narrow angle of view, rather than operating directly with a camera button or lens ring.

MS-500 camera body rear showing serial connection

Technical Specifications

View Full Technical Specs PDF

Camera

Server

Interface

Other

Informational Documents

File Name

MS-500 Brochure

Date

10.30.24

File Size

1.9 MB

Product Disclaimer

  1. Bayonet lens mount based on BTA S-1005B standards.
  2. Minimal time of 100 picoseconds or less (1 picosecond = 1/1 trillionth of a second).
  3. The effect of generating a large number of electrons explosively in a very short time from one electron generated by a photon is called the Electron Avalanche Effect.
  4. Among cameras equipped with SPAD sensors used for color video shooting. As of July 31, 2023. Based on Canon research.
  5. The built-in magnifying optical system of the MS-500 has a magnification of about 1.3x.
  6. At higher levels, some scenes may appear blue-green.
  7. Canon’s original control protocol.