Canon made a site that lets you 'take photos' from a real satellite

Canon is doing something different in 2021. Rather than releasing any new cameras, it has decided to let you take pictures from space. 

Recently, the company has unveiled an interactive website that allows user to use Canon's CE-SAT-1 satellite which is equipped with a slightly modified 5D Mark III DSLR where you can grab simulated pictures of locations such as New York City, Dubai, the Bahamas etc.

The wine barrel sized microsatellite was launched by Canon in 2017, reports Engadget. 

It has an EOS 5D Mark III camera with a 40 cm Cassegrain mirror 3720mm telescope. 

The satellite orbits at a 600 km orbit and provides about 36-inch ground resolution. 

It has a mile frame of 3x2.

Canon claims. (By contrast, the world's highest-resolution satellite, WorldView-4, can resolve down to 12 inches.) It also houses a PowerShot S110 for wider images.

The interactive demo site allows users to take images from multiple locations, with each shot showing the location and altitude of the image.

However, it uses pre-captured imagery, so the user can not grab live or unique photos.

If it was live, CE-SAT-1 would be zipping around the Earth at nearly 17,000 miles per hour, circling the globe in just over an hour and half.

However, the demonstration does give users a feel for the satellite's capabilities and resolution.

The microsatellites are much smaller and cheaper than regular satellites, and Canon hopes to build a billion dollar business around them by 2030.