Forgive me I’m going to ramble for a minute about a crazy, if dubious, idea that popped into my head today.

Canon should dump the 3:2 APS-C sensor in the next iteration of the 7D, and replace it with a 24mm x 14.8mm “super 35” sensor.

If you stop and look at the product launches this year, Canon is fully embracing the video production thing. I’d argue it actually started when the 5D mark 2 was an unexpected runaway success. In fact, I’d attribute a lot of the relatively pathetic rate of camera advancement between 2H 2008 and now, or at least 2H 2011, as an artifact of a major shift in Canon’s direction. That is the move from a division that makes still cameras with video added, to a division that is fully behind still and video tools.

In that light of Canon’s push for video stuff, why not make the 7D mark 2 capable of being as serious a split cinema & still camera as the 1DC is.

There’s a second aspect to this thought process, and it may just be my own fears showing, but hear me out. I see a general perception among photographers that APS-C isn’t really a serious format. The sentiment is as you progress you move from APS-C to full frame.

I think, in a way, that underlying sentiment comes from the fact that prior to digital in the small format world there was just full frame—yes, I know there were some APS cameras. When digital came along, full frame took a temporary hiatus due to economics, being replaced by various “crop” formats. They simply weren’t replacements for film. Now that full frame cameras are clearly dropping into what use to be the high end APS-C price bracket I fear there’s going to be a tendency to sort of assume a natural pecking order that goes from APS-C to full frame with no real interleaving. At least enough of one that it would be uneconomical to make a high end APS-C body that was priced in the same $1800-2000 tier as a entry level FF body.

Assuming that Nikon doesn’t up and release a $1800 D400, they’ve already kind of positioned their line up like that. The D7000 in virtually every way replaced the D300s (really only shedding 2 FPS in a corner case and gripped battery compatibility with the D3 line), and does so at the pro-sumer $1200 price point. The D600 then slots in nicely as the $1800-2100 semi-pro body.

Canon, of course, could do something similar but it raises some issues. The 60D is clearly a cut below the 7D or D7000. Unfortunately I don’t see a real good way to combine where Canon took the 60D and 7D lines respectively, and maintaining the two at $1000 and $1500 seems like one ends up artificially crippled just to stay out of the other’s way. Likewise, it’s hard for me to see a lot of people springing for a $1600-1800 7D-2 when by the time it’s replaced the 6D would be down in the $1900-2000 range, at least not so long as full-frame is perceived as better.

Which brings me to going wider.

I think to keep a high-end APS-C line going, the line has to cater to a borader market than just still photographers. Moreover, APS-C and Super35 are pretty close in size, with Super35 being only 1mm shorter and 2mm wider.

A 14.9mm x 24mm the sensor should only cost about 8% more than a straight 14.9mm x 22.3mm Canon APS-C sensor. The wider-only sensor also guarantees EF-S compatibility is retained. Likewise, the modifications to the mirror, sub-mirror, and shutter only need to be lengthened in one axis versions of the existing design without other modifications. As for the viewfinder, it can either be kept the same or widened to maintain 100% horizontal coverage. I, personally, don’t have a problem treating the 16:9 wings as something that’s only available though live view, but I’m sure many would disagree.

Granted, moving to a 1.5x crop factor 24mm x 16mm sensor would be an even bigger win for both still and video shooters, but there’s no guarantee it would fit without dumping EF-S support, and it doubles the cost delta over the wider-but-not-taller sensor.

After having written this, I do kind of think the idea is a bit sillier than it seemed before I reasoned though it, especially when a 1.5 crop sensor, assuming it fits, would provide the same area for video and more area for stills.