Canon makes their own sensors.
Heres one article about Canon expanding sensor production plant size in Japan a couple years ago.
Canon to build $451 mln factory for key camera part
TOKYO
Technology
A spokesman for the world's largest digital camera maker said it broke ground in May on a new building on an existing site in Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo and expected it to start operations in July 2008.
The factory will make complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS), a component used in digital cameras and video cameras to convert light into an electric signal.
The new plant will have roughly the same annual production capacity as another factory in Kanagawa that can churn out 3 million CMOS chips a year, the spokesman said.
The CMOS chips will be used in both single lens reflex (SLR) models as well as in some compact models. Canon's compact cameras have to date used a different type of image sensor called a charge-coupled device (CCD).
Canon has procured CCDs from other suppliers such as Sony Corp. (6758.T), but it has been developing CMOS sensors for compact models as part of its strategy of bringing key component production in-house to lower costs.
Canon is aiming to produce 24 million digital cameras this year, including 3 million SLRs, which are high-end models that use interchangeable lenses.
Canon to build $451 mln factory for key camera part | Reuters Originally posted by smc Both Canon and Nikon use Sony sensors in many of their cameras. The also both make their own sensors. The truth of the matter is that all three, Sony (to a lesser extent), Nikon and Canon don't make the sensors that are labeled as theirs. No company these days is going to start from scratch, and a camera company is not all of a sudden going to be an expert in creating chips and sensors. Open your "Dell" computer and tell me the names of the chips on the inside...... It can get a little more hazy if something of importance like a sensor is involved, but just because it says "Canon" doesn't mean it hasn't been outsourced to Canon.