Canon’s XH G1 HD camcorder was among those who got to space before the rest of us when it traveled to the International Space Station for testing the capture of HD images on America’s latest space shuttle mission.
The XH GI was carried aboard Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and used in joint HD testing this fall on the space station by NASA and its Japanese counterpart, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The XH G1 (initially introduced a year ago) shoots in 1080i. The HD camcorder journeyed to the heavens equipped with a Canon 20x HD zoom lens equipped with a fluorite lens element for resolution, contrast and color reproduction.
According to Canon, the XH G1 “passed verification testing by JAXA [and] effectively fulfilled its mission objectives” for the joint U.S.-Japan project in an environment subject to various constraints found in space and aboard the space station compared with more typical shooting conditions found on planet Earth.
The XH G1 is equipped with three 1/3-inch native 16:9 CCDs for producing 1.67-megapixel imaging, a Digic DV II HD image processor for increased HD data streaming, and a proprietary Canon image stabilizer.
