What Is A 13mp Camera
Editors' note: This article originally published May vi, 2012, and was updated on February 13, 2013, and once again on May 4, 2013.
In a affair of months, the high-terminate smartphone camera spec rocketed from a respectable 8 megapixels to an altitudinous 13.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG Optimus G Pro are the freshest examples of this megapixel push button, just fifty-fifty final January's Pantech Observe (12.6 megapixels), last Oct's LG Optimus 1000 for Sprint (13 megapixels), and particularly mid-2012'due south 41-megapixel Nokia 808 PureView piled on the megapixels.
Yet even though the applied science exists, quality can be just as uneven from telephone to phone as it was when an viii-megapixel shooter was the "all-time" that money could purchase.
Shootout!: Samsung Galaxy S4 versus HTC One and iPhone five
Championing that perception head-on is HTC, the same company that non as well long agone boasted well-nigh the 16-megapixel camera in its Titan Two. Now, in its HTC One flagship, the smartphone maker dials down the megapixel count to 4 megapixels, which HTC fancifully terms "Ultrapixels," arguing that the lager pixel size throws back the blinds to let in much more than light.
In this lies the reminder (something photography nuts will tell you) that it'due south quite possible for an fantabulous 5-megapixel camera to produce photos you prefer over a shoddy 12-megapixel camera. The number of megapixels lonely is no guarantee of heightened photographic performance.
Instead, the formula for fantastic photos comes downward to the unabridged camera module, which includes the size and material of the principal camera lens, the low-cal sensor, the image processing hardware, and the software that ties it all together. And so permit's dive in.
Note: As always with this column, if you already consider yourself an expert, then this article is probably not for yous.
Key ingredient No. 1: The sensor
About budding and professional photographers will tell you that the almost important ingredient in the optical arrangement is the sensor, because that's the part that captures the lite. The sensor is essentially the "picture" textile of a digital camera. No calorie-free, no photo.
Low-cal enters through the camera lens, then passes to the camera sensor, which receives the information and translates it into an electronic bespeak. From there, the image processor creates the paradigm and fine-tunes information technology to correct for a typical set of photographic flaws, like dissonance.
The size of the image sensor is extremely important. In general, the larger the sensor, the larger your pixels, and the larger the pixels, the more than calorie-free y'all tin collect. The more light you can take hold of, the better your prototype can be.
The experts I spoke with for this story had colorful ways of describing the relationship between pixels and sensors, simply "buckets of h2o" or "wells" were a favorite (intentionally oversimplified) analogy.
Imagine yous accept buckets (pixels) laid out on a blacktop (sensor). You desire to collect the most water (lite) in those buckets as possible. To extend the water-and-bucket analogy, the larger the sensor you lot accept (blacktop), the larger the pixels (buckets) you tin can put onto it, and the more light (water) y'all can collect.
Larger sensors are the reason that 8 megapixels from a digital SLR camera (or 5 or 13) best those viii megapixels from a smartphone camera. You get roughly the aforementioned number of pixels, simply the pixels on the dSLR get to be larger, and therefore let in more light. More light (generally) equals less-noisy images and greater dynamic range.
The fallacy of megapixels
You lot can start to encounter that cramming more pixels onto a sensor may not be the best way to increase pixel resolution. That hasn't stopped the cell telephone industry from doing only that.
Jon Erensen, a Gartner analyst who has covered photographic camera sensors, remembers when we collectively made the leap from 1-megapixel to 2-megapixel shooters.
"They would make the pixel sizes smaller [to fit in more pixels]," Erensen told me over the phone, "only keep the prototype sensor the same."
"What ended upward happening is that the light would become into the well [the 'bucket'] and hit the photo-sensitive role of the epitome sensor, capturing the light. So if you make the wells smaller, the light has a harder time getting to the photo-sensitive part of the sensor. In the end, increased resolution wasn't worth very much. Noise increased," he said.
The relationship between the number of pixels and the physical size of the sensor is why some 8-megapixel cameras tin outperform some 12-, 13-, or even 16-megapixel smartphone cameras.
There's more involved, too. A slim smartphone limits the sensor size for one, and moving up the megapixel ladder without increasing the sensor size tin can degrade the photograph quality by letting in less light than yous could get with slightly fewer megapixels.
Then once again, drastically shrunken pixel sizes aren't ever the consequence when yous increase your megapixels. HTC's Bjorn Kilburn, vice president of portfolio strategy, shared that the pixel size on the xvi-megapixel Titan Two measures 1.12 microns, whereas each of the HTC 1 X'south 8 pixels measures a slightly larger one.four microns.
As a upshot, the photo quality on both these HTC smartphones should exist comparable at a pixel-by-pixel level.
Unfortunately, most smartphone makers don't share granular particular about their camera components and sensor size, and so until we exam them, the quality is largely up in the air. Even if smartphone makers did release the details, I'chiliad not certain how scrutable those specs would be to the majority of smartphone shoppers.
For more information on the coaction betwixt megapixels and sensors, cheque out the excellent clarification in CNET'southward digital camera buying guide.
What virtually Nokia's 41-megapixel PureView?
The story behind the 808 PureView smartphone as Nokia tells it is really interesting. CNET Senior Editor Josh Goldman has written one of the best explanations of the Nokia 808 Pureview's 41-megapixel camera that I've seen. I strongly suggest y'all read information technology.
In the meantime, here'due south a short summary of what's going on.
Juha (pronounce it YOO-hah) Alakarhu is head of camera technologies at Nokia, where he works within the Smart Devices team. Alakarhu explained to me that although Nokia has engineered the 808 to capture up to 41 megapixels, almost users volition view photos equally the 5-megapixel default.
Commonly, when you utilise the digital zoom on your phone, you're blowing up and cropping an image to encounter each pixel upwards shut. You all know what that tin can look like: grainy, blocky, and non always every bit sharply focused or equally colorful equally you'd like.
In the 808 PureView, Nokia uses a process called "oversampling," which -- for the 808's 5-megapixel default resolution -- condenses the information captured in 7 pixels into 1 (they call information technology a "superpixel"). If y'all zoom in on an object, yous're simply seeing part of the epitome that's already there, rather than scaling upwards. This method should translate to college-resolution digital printouts and zoom-ins than y'all'd unremarkably see.
It's taken over five years to create the technology within the 808 PureView, Alakarhu said. Not only does the 808 lean on the physical size of the sensor (specifically ane/ane.2-inch), there are also custom algorithms on top of the sensor to adjust the paradigm to reduce imperfections like dissonance. It's this set of instructions that Nokia terms PureView, non the sensor size alone.
As CNET's Goldman has pointed out, this is an unusually big sensor for a smartphone, and it'south too larger than sensors found on the vast majority of point-and-shoot cameras.
Key ingredient No. two: Image processing
In addition to the size and quality of the lens and sensor, there'south also the image processor. About modern high-end smartphone CPUs take defended graphics processors built into the chip, which, beingness hardware-accelerated and non but software-dependent, tin can chop-chop return images like photos, videos, and games without overtaxing the main application processor.
HTC and Samsung have been pushing continuous-flare-up mode hard, averaging one shot in a tenth of a 2nd or less, thanks to dissever hardware-accelerated image processors that can capture shots like nobody's concern. However, since burst mode doesn't requite you time to focus, wait to run into some mistiness.
I promised that there was software bridging the hardware and the final image, and there is. Algorithms and other logic are what create the terminal paradigm output on the phone's screen. This is where the virtually subjective element of photography comes in: how your middle interprets the quality of color, the photograph's sharpness, and then on.
The paradigm processor is besides what helps achieve zero shutter lag, when the camera captures the photograph when you press the capture button, not a beat or two later.
Wait, there's more
At that place's much more than to know nigh the competing technology that goes into sensors, but behind-illuminated sensors are starting to be used much more than in smartphones.
This type of sensor is oftentimes synonymous with better low-light performance because information technology increases photosensitivity. Nonetheless, if you shoot in bright calorie-free, it can besides accident out your image. Here are more details on how backside illumination works.
Low-low-cal performance, by the style, is turning into a serious battleground for bragging rights. Nokia's Lumia 920 and Apple tree's iPhone five currently dominion this shadowy realm, with HTC'south One vastly outperforming the Samsung Galaxy S4, which has no automatic depression-light adjustments to speak of (though in that location are several shooting modes).
Backing out of the low-light rabbit hole, it's important to annotation that the photographic camera'south sensor size and image processor may exist the about crucial elements for creating quality smartphone photos, but other considerations come into play. Higher-quality components, for instance, can help tease out amend photos, only they could as well cost more, which could lead to a marginally pricier camera.
While the cost of a camera module is only one part of the full cost, Gartner analyst Erensen said that loftier-end parts could double the price of a basic camera prepare, and thought that parts could cost $15 per phone. The smartphone makers I contacted for this article, like Samsung and Nokia, wouldn't share sourcing or pricing information.
Usability is king
It'south quickly condign a well-worn adage that the best camera is the one you have on you.
Despite the intense engineering focus that goes into the photographic camera'south physical elements, it'south hard to overstress the importance of both convenience and the total client feel. How easy it is to open the camera app from a locked position, how quickly photos capture, and how desirable the special effects and shooting modes are all add together upwardly to either a photographic camera you desire to utilize or one y'all don't.
Increasingly, some phone makers, like HTC, LG, and Samsung, include actress logic in their big-ticket phones, similar detecting smiles and selecting the best group photo of a bunch. New modes have emerged among the tiptop-tier Android handsets, including taking photos and videos from both front and rear cameras, as well as grouping action shots into a unmarried frame.
Fancy filters and tricks are fun political party games, but for most phone owners, said Drew Blackard, Samsung'due south senior manager of product planning, beingness able to rapidly and hands share photos on the wing is far more important than pixel count. Just look at Twitter's and Instagram's (at present Facebook-endemic) delinquent success in sharing simple, small photos.
Gartner's Erensen agrees. "What do you lot actually gain from going college than you demand, in a practical sense?" he asked, adding that most people upload smartphone photos to online albums, or due east-mail them to family and friends, formats that require many fewer than viii megapixels, or even 5.
A trip to Indonesia illustrates what Nokia's Alakarhu and the others mean by the whole experience taking precedence over the specs. While trekking with 22 pounds of gear on his back -- including a high-quality dSLR -- Alakarhu repeatedly reached for the Nokia 808 PureView he kept in his pocket.
Although he considers himself an amateur lensman who will put in the fourth dimension to frame a swell shot, Alakarhu said he found himself using the PureView more because of its easy availability and quick outset time when he didn't want to take the time to set a more involved shot on his digital camera.
I have my share of similar stories, and I suspect that you practice, too.
We definitely shouldn't scrap pixel count when weighing smartphone camera specs against others, merely when it comes to all the hardware and software that create a great photo, the megapixel count solitary just isn't plenty. It'southward time we shift the focus somewhere else -- similar maybe to that undersung sensor.
Thanks to CNET Senior Editor Josh Goldman, who contributed to this story.
To see which phones have the latest, best camera technology, check out our electric current listing of the best photographic camera phones.
Smartphones Unlocked is a monthly column that dives deep into the inner workings of your trusty smartphone.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/camera-megapixels-why-more-isnt-always-better-smartphones-unlocked/
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