2011 iPhone to Sport 8-Megapixel Camera Sensor From Sony?

They should just include it in this year's iPhone.

2011??

By the time they release in 2011 .. other phones will be 12-megapixel.

Or how about this scenario:

5mp camera from Omni for;

* iPod Nano
* iPod Touch
* iPad

8mp camera from Sony for;

* iPhone


Just a thought, based on past rumors.

We barely know what's on the iPhone coming out in 2010 so i'm not even gonna speculate about 2011.

does this mean a carl zeiss lens?

honestly though to fit that powerful of a sensor and lens one would think we might be seeing an iPhone casing redesign.....

What's the point? Seriously. It's not like anybody would try to to take a photo and print it on A0 using an iPhone. All this does it create very large files and eat up the still quite restricted memory space available on the iPhone.

As a side note, I don't even want to think about the low-light performance of these tiny sensors as digital noise is very strongly correlated to sensor pixel density.

I can sort of understand 5 Megapixels - but that's more than enough for 99% of all users.

Fabian

I really hope this isn't going to be to the detriment of anything else. There's only one reason to put an 8MP camera in a phone, and that's so you can say "8MP Camera" on the spec. Even many compact cameras can't make decent use of anything more than 6MP.

Next we'll get speakers that go all the way up to 11...

NikeTalk said:

We barely know what's on the iPhone coming out in 2010 so i'm not even gonna speculate about 2011.

Click to expand...

2010: 3.5g, 64gb, front facing camera, Apple A4, 5mp camera w/flash, 720p video, 960x640 display, 20% better battery life, case redesign

2011: 4g, 128gb, RFID, Apple A5, 8mp camera w/zoom, 1080p video, IPS display, 30% better battery life

Didn't you get the memo?

I think, for once, I might actually pass on this year's iPhone. iPad keeps me plenty busy! I think from here on out I'll alternate years buying iPhones and iPads. They are both killer devices.

fabian9 said:

What's the point? Seriously. It's not like anybody would try to to take a photo and print it on A0 using an iPhone. All this does it create very large files and eat up the still quite restricted memory space available on the iPhone.

As a side note, I don't even want to think about the low-light performance of these tiny sensors as digital noise is very strongly correlated to sensor pixel density.

I can sort of understand 5 Megapixels - but that's more than enough for 99% of all users.

Fabian

Click to expand...

Because most people don't understand MP's and think that more = better. The fact that I can get far better shots out of my 5mp D40 than my 10mp point and shoot compact is obviously an anomaly...
I suppose it's good for digital zooming... if you're into horrible practises like digital zooming.

macduke said:

2010: 3.5g, 64gb, front facing camera, Apple A4, 5mp camera w/flash, 720p video, 960x640 display, 20% better battery life, case redesign

2011: 4g, 128gb, RFID, Apple A5, 8mp camera w/zoom, 1080p video, IPS display, 30% better battery life

Didn't you get the memo?

I think, for once, I might actually pass on this year's iPhone. iPad keeps me plenty busy! I think from here on out I'll alternate years buying iPhones and iPads. They are both killer devices.

Click to expand...

4G in 2011, on what network. 4G is not going to be reality for a while, not to mention the speed boost from 3G to 4G is not nearly as significant as from 2G EDGE to 3G was. But whatever gets people excited.

Scott Moritz also thought the iPad would go to Verizon. He is not to be believed. Who really even cares anyway since it has such a small sensor and the next iPhone hasn't been released?

macduke said:

2010: 3.5g, 64gb, front facing camera, Apple A4, 5mp camera w/flash, 720p video, 960x640 display, 20% better battery life, case redesign

2011: 4g, 128gb, RFID, Apple A5, 8mp camera w/zoom, 1080p video, IPS display, 30% better battery life

Didn't you get the memo?

I think, for once, I might actually pass on this year's iPhone. iPad keeps me plenty busy! I think from here on out I'll alternate years buying iPhones and iPads. They are both killer devices.

Click to expand...

I don't think we'll see that much of an improvement going from 2010 iPhone to 2011 iPhone. Same as 3G to 3Gs wasn't that much of an improvement.

iPhone to iPhone 3G was a big step, iPhone 3Gs to 2010 iPhone is hopefully going to be a big step.

So the even years is where it's at for iPhones.

With iPads it's odd years. 2010 was a good introduction, but you can already tell how much better the next revision is likely to be.

Fabian

anonymouz1828 said:

By the time they release in 2011 .. other phones will be 12-megapixel.

Click to expand...

And that’s a bad thing.

Megapixels does not = image quality. It’s a sales tactic by camera manufacturers. Useful for giant posters or digital zoom (if you don’t have enough optical zoom), but not a good measure of quality. Even 2 megapixels is huge and plenty of size for most consumer uses. 3 to 5 could be nice.

But with higher megapixels comes more noise, reducing quality unless you have the optics/sensors to back up all those pixels (and I wouldn’t expect a phone to do so). So you gain more noise than actual detail. Even scaling the image back down to 2 or 3 MP still leaves you with a worse quality image than if you started with a lower-MP version of the same camera. (Google for tests that show this.)

Worst of all: higher-MP images, which likely offer nothing of value, also take up tons more memory, camera storage, hard disk storage, and backup storage. They’re slower to work with and waste space. If I had an 8MP camera I’d set it lower anyway. Unless it was an expensive dedicated camera with really good optics. (Not a phone.)

So I hope Apple doesn’t go to 8MP. And I hope no phone goes to 12! Pure marketing buzzwords, when in reality it’s actually worse for the customer.

It took Apple 2 years to go from 2.0 MP to 3.2 MP, I bet that it'll take them 2 years again to reach 4.x or 5.x MP.

Besides, just like Megahertz myth back in the late 90s and early 00s, it doesn't matter, there are many other factors that affect performance. In a camera's world, that also accounts to software and the sensor.

everyone keeps bringing up the opportunity for digital zoom while that is one use I hate digital zoom, I'd rather have the larger image then crop it later where I can have more control and I think that is where anything over 3.2Mp becomes useful

8 Mpix is really going to look great on the new 0,5 Mpix displays that are rumored in the next iPhone.

PAPO said:

everyone keeps bringing up the opportunity for digital zoom while that is one use I hate digital zoom, I'd rather have the larger image then crop it later where I can have more control and I think that is where anything over 3.2Mp becomes useful

Click to expand...

I think digital zoom in iPhone OS 4.0 will surprise the world. The touch focus is already so revolutionary.

The world could really benefit from someone with the communications skills of Jobs explaining why you don't want more megapixels in a phone. Of course the pitch isn't that you don't need something, it's that you need something else-- like sensitivity. Of all imaging platforms, I'd guess cell phones are taking more indoor pictures than any other. Show what can be done with a good 2MP sensor as opposed to a crap 8MP sensor, and make the world forget it's just physical laws and get them believing it's Apple innovation.

God, I hate the MP race even more than the MHz race. I lie awake at night fearing that Nikon is going to increase the pixel count in the D700 before I can afford one...

I just want the Zeiss optics Sony puts in their camera. .... yum

Anthony T said:

They should just include it in this year's iPhone.

Click to expand...

It dosen't sound like you understand the manufacturing process and the timelines required to produce gadgets like the iPhone.
The majority of these orders are for items that are not yet in production, but are just available for order.
Hardware manufacturers(suppliers) aren't like retail stores. They don't manufacture a million parts and just hold them in stock in a warehouse somewhere just waiting for a manufacturer like Apple to put in an order... They make a SMALL batch to demo, test and display. THEN the end device manufacturer puts in their orders.
It's only on receipt of these orders that the supplier actually starts cranking out the massive numbers.

Analog Kid said:

The world could really benefit from someone with the communications skills of Jobs explaining why you don't want more megapixels in a phone. Of course the pitch isn't that you don't need something, it's that you need something else-- like sensitivity. Of all imaging platforms, I'd guess cell phones are taking more indoor pictures than any other. Show what can be done with a good 2MP sensor as opposed to a crap 8MP sensor, and make the world forget it's just physical laws and get them believing it's Apple innovation.

God, I hate the MP race even more than the MHz race. I lie awake at night fearing that Nikon is going to increase the pixel count in the D700 before I can afford one...

Click to expand...

They will, Canon have just released the 550D, with 18mp, so the update to the D90 (currently 12mp) will need to match that, and it follows that the D700 will also get more MP's to be "better" than the D90.

fabian9 said:

I don't think we'll see that much of an improvement going from 2010 iPhone to 2011 iPhone. Same as 3G to 3Gs wasn't that much of an improvement.

iPhone to iPhone 3G was a big step, iPhone 3Gs to 2010 iPhone is hopefully going to be a big step.

So the even years is where it's at for iPhones.

With iPads it's odd years. 2010 was a good introduction, but you can already tell how much better the next revision is likely to be.

Fabian

Click to expand...

3g to 3gs was a bigger step than 2g 3g. the only new things on the 3g was 3g and gps. while the 3gs had all new hardware, better 3g, more ram, better camera, voice control, ect ect.

2011?

Lets get the 2010 iPhone out before the rumors start flying around about the 2011 iPhone!!!!!

This is probably a step in the wrong direction...

It should be noted that without a good lens, increasing the number of pixels in the sensor can actually greatly REDUCE the quality of a digital photo, while still taking up more disk space for the extra redundant information.

This is also why the iPhone will likely NEVER take pictures better than a stand-alone camera with even MINIMAL optical zoom.
Because since Jobs is so fanatically focused on clean lines for sexy devices, the gadget will never have any lenses non-fixed lenses, and so it'll never have any zoom other than digital (which is not true zoom).
We'll likely only get an optical zoom on the iDevices AFTER Apple drops this convention. This is also why optical zoom is less likely on mobile Apple devices than a removable battery.

I'd rather Apple spend some more time focusing on the device's lens rather than jamming in more mega-pixels.
http://www.fotohacker.com/2008/02/28/why-more-megapixels-is-sometimes-bad/
http://www.videojug.com/interview/digital-camera-picture-quality

Additionally, without a better display on the device you're not going to be able to appreciate the increased detail upon review. This is especially so with the fact that Apple will shrink the resolution of your photos when you transfer them to or from various apps on the iPhone. iTunes will often do this transparently when you're copying your photos from your computer to your iPhone/iPod, just to save space (even if you want the unaltered image available for sharing on-th-go).