Canon backs Thunderbolt for high-speed video

Canon on Thursday became the next company to throw its official endorsement behind Intel's Thunderbolt port. The company shied away from direct plan revelations but hinted that it would be used for camcorders that needed very high performance. The 10Gbps port would "bring new levels of performance and simplicity to the video creation market," Canon's Video Products Group director Hiroo Edakubo said.

The technology would likely be used for very high speed video offloads from cameras, most likely pro models. HD footage, especially at or beyond 1080p, consumes multiple gigabytes per hour at full quality and can take very long amounts of time to copy to a computer using even eSATA or FireWire 800. A sufficiently fast onboard drive and computer could transfer footage in a few minutes.

Canon's adoption will also be important for Apple, which is so far the only company to have Thunderbolt and uses it in its new MacBook Pros. Most instances of Thunderbolt-ready hardware have focused on very fast external drives and not digital imaging or other creative technology closely associated with Macs. Other computer builders aren't expected to get onboard until 2012.

By Electronista Staff