One possibility to make a fast and radiation resistant shower maximum (SM) detector is to use a secondary emitter as an active element. We present below test beam results, obtained with different types of photodetectors based on microchannel plates (MCPs) as the secondary emitter. We performed the measurements at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility with 120GeV proton beam and 12GeV and 32GeV secondary beams. The goal of the measurement with 120GeV protons was to determine time resolution for minimum ionizing particles (MIPs). The SM time resolution we obtained for this new type of detector is at the level of 20–30ps. We estimate that a significant contribution to the detector response originates from secondary emission of the MCP. This work can be considered as the first step in building a new type of calorimeter based on this principle.