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

I am a photographer. cramming 8mp into a tiny sensor is a recipe for poor quality like noise....

I really hate the 'more is better' marketing concept. There is a point when quality trumps quantity.
 
Vantage Point said:
I am a photographer. cramming 8mp into a tiny sensor is a recipe for poor quality like noise.
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Amen. I dusted off my Minolta Dimage 5 the other day for some Easter pictures. This 3.3MP camera makes some great, low-noise pictures that are high enough resolution for 5x7" prints (or 8x10" if you're not too picky) or uploading to Facebook. I purchased this camera in 2001 and it still does well 9 years later.

-Aaron-
 
goobot said:
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.
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3G had all new hardware, new case, 3G, GPS, App Store, etc. 3Gs had what, a compass and a new camera? I really don't think it was a revolutionary upgrade...

The next one will hopefully have a few more new things.

Fabian
 
I certainly agree with the; more pixels are not necessarily better argument. BUT can we agree that the current 3,2mp in the iphone is not exactly top of the line for smartphones - and with the 3gs being one of the more expensive smartphones I honestly expect more. But then again, Apple has an unusually long product cycle for it's products compared to other companies doing computers and smartphones.

Currently I use the SonyEricsson Vivaz; 8mp and 720p - sure, not a match for my Nikon D80 (10mp), but very good results for a phone!
 
Why in the world would anyone want 8MP on a cell phone? Already the image quality is limited by the size of the lens, not the sensor chip. This can only be explained by the marketing department pandering to ignorant consumers.

Why don't the camera makers come up with a meaningful spec that people can understand. Like maybe lines of resolution at some standard distance. This would tell people how much detail the camera could record, not how much data it can collect.
 
8MP in 2011? Laughable.

I've had a 5MP camera in my Nokia from 2006, and Samsung had an 8MP in their phone from a year or two ago.

I don't recall what the lens is in the Samsung, but my Nokia proudly states that it has a Zeiss lens. Either way, the photos my Nokia produces are superior in every way to that of the iPhone, but not in the same stratosphere as a proper camera.
 
Hopefully they will put a better lens to. although my iphone takes some great daytime, sunrise, or sunset (outdoor) pictures. Of course not as good as my Nikon 10Mp 18X Opticle Zoom Pre-DSLR. One thing they need to do is get rid of the way the lense sensor goes dim in sunlight. many of times I had to cover the lense with my hand and hurry up and snap the picture after removing my hand to get the proper brightness back. Either that or tweek /enhance the photo once downloaded to my iphoto and even at that sometimes you cannot always get proper exposure back.

I do not carry my DSLR everywhere, so my iphone is my camera when I am just out and about and I see something to take a quick picture of. I must have taken a few thousand pictures with just my iphone in the last year.

by 2011 my contract will be up with AT & T and it will be time to upgrade my 3G phone.
 
fabian9 said:
3G had all new hardware, new case, 3G, GPS, App Store, etc. 3Gs had what, a compass and a new camera? I really don't think it was a revolutionary upgrade...

The next one will hopefully have a few more new things.

Fabian
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I am really looking forward to it tying in to the transporter on the main ship to save using the damn shuttle pod and perhaps allowing the Holodeck projections locally. :)
 
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
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I completely agree. Even camera manufacturers are backing off from the high megapixel race in order to decrease the noise that these sensors generate. I think 5MP would be just fine for a phone camera.
 
I agree i think 8MP is a bit excessive for a phone camera. I'm perfectly fine with having my point n shoot separate from my phone and having them both work better because of it. Its just another thing to jack up the price tag.
 
fabian9 said:
3G had all new hardware, new case, 3G, GPS, App Store, etc. 3Gs had what, a compass and a new camera? I really don't think it was a revolutionary upgrade...

The next one will hopefully have a few more new things.

Fabian
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3GS has the touch focus technology. I don't think your 3G iPhone can do it.
 
anonymouz1828 said:
By the time they release in 2011 .. other phones will be 12-megapixel.
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Makes no sense.

The main constraint is low-light sensor performance while shooting video (when the shutter speed is effectively 1/60th of a second). The megapixel race is basically asinine when it comes to video.

Besides, the resolving power of a lens the size of a pencil eraser isn't really going to benefit from a 12-megapixel sensor. Better to stick to 5 or 6 megapixel sensor size and continually improve low-light performance.
 
fabian9 said:
3G had all new hardware, new case, 3G, GPS, App Store, etc. 3Gs had what, a compass and a new camera? I really don't think it was a revolutionary upgrade...

The next one will hopefully have a few more new things.

Fabian
Click to expand...

app store was not a upgrade since both the ipod touch and iphone 2g had it. its like saying copy paste was a upgrade for the 3gs. its not. a new case aint a feature unless it makes the phone better and apple called it 1,2 instead of 2,1 cause it had no new hardware.


the 3gs has a camera upgrade to 3 mg auto focus and vid recording. voice control, faster speeds, 7.2 3g, better screen that doesnt get dirty, battery % and has a better processor or something like that.

if you want to take software that makes the old phone better to i guess then the 3gs also had copy past landscape for all those apps, new apis, search ect ect.
 
As long as a camera actually works, such as the iPhones, i don't really care. It can be 2 megapixels, or 12 megapixels, it just has to work. And that's what Apple's technology and partnerships work on, with well built quality. Other phones, such as the DROID or even the EVO 4G, don't really care about if it the camera works. They attract people with thought of a higher megapixel than the other. Which all that & different other specs equal to competition! Phones like those, turn out to have an amount of lack in battery, and a sluggish phone a time. But some work, and some are horrible at it. But Apple certainly knows what it's doing, and if a 5 megapixel camera this year turns out to be flawless, i'd be surprised if Apple introduced it to their iPhone, ofcourse. Just do have your hopes up with a 8 megapixel or 12 megapixel on top of your wish list of complaints this year.
:apple:
 
fabian9 said:
3G had all new hardware, new case, 3G, GPS, App Store, etc. 3Gs had what, a compass and a new camera? I really don't think it was a revolutionary upgrade...

The next one will hopefully have a few more new things.

Fabian
Click to expand...

I agree. The 3G was revolutionary from the 2G. The big factor was it had 3G capabilities. All new hardware because the aluminum backing was causing bad reception, GPS, the new app store, a better camera than the 2G and more memory.

The 3GS was just a meh upgrade. More memory and faster. It can take video legitimately but my iPhone 3G did that before the 3GS ever came out :D
 
BUT can we agree that the current 3,2mp in the iphone is not exactly top of the line for smartphones - and with the 3gs being one of the more expensive smartphones I honestly expect more.
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Expect more what? Graininess and fuzziness? 3.2mp is all a tiny lens like the iPhone camera needs/can handle. Anything more is just marketing hype and will lead to poorer image quality. 5mp I can maaaaybe see, 8mp is just ridiculous.

Now if they were to improve the lens somehow...hard to do in such a small form factor, and much more expensive.
 
Seriously, how much detail do you expect a sensor the size of your little fingernail can hold?! 8MP is defiantly overkill without enlarging the sensor
 
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...

+1 on all your points

Does anyone really make prints from their phone? I would *assume* most phone camera images are destined for a screen and that's about it.
3.1 megapixels = 2048 × 1536 pixels. How many people have a monitor capable of viewing that at full resolution? So why 8MP?
If they're going to be of DSLR quality or even a good P&S, I'm all for it.
That will not be the case, though. It would just be a memory hog.
Dumb idea, unless you don't care about image quality.
Are people really that stupid?
 
rickdollar said:
+1 on all your points

Does anyone really make prints from their phone? I would *assume* most phone camera images are destined for a screen and that's about it.
3.1 megapixels = 2048 × 1536 pixels. How many people have a monitor capable of viewing that at full resolution? So why 8MP?
If they're going to be of DSLR quality or even a good P&S, I'm all for it.
That will not be the case, though. It would just be a memory hog.
Dumb idea, unless you don't care about image quality.
Are people really that stupid?
Click to expand...

Yes, yes they are. For many people more mega pixels is better, regardless of whether the extra detail afforded will actually be noticeable when taken through the craptastic lens in the iphone.
 
batistuta said:
I certainly agree with the; more pixels are not necessarily better argument. BUT can we agree that the current 3,2mp in the iphone is not exactly top of the line for smartphones - and with the 3gs being one of the more expensive smartphones I honestly expect more. But then again, Apple has an unusually long product cycle for it's products compared to other companies doing computers and smartphones.

Currently I use the SonyEricsson Vivaz; 8mp and 720p - sure, not a match for my Nikon D80 (10mp), but very good results for a phone!
Click to expand...
Actually, it should have never gone higher than 3mp!
As already said, marketing is forcing decisions that have no results. There is no way for a tiny sensor like this and an even tinier lens to ever be able to record decent images. The megapixels war has moved from the dedicated cameras to mobile phones, and let's hope it will also end sometime soon.
Apple should instead try to bump other areas with this sensor, like say nightshot capabilities, better noise handling and such.
Take a look on Nikon's latest digital creation with the D3s, a full frame 12mp pro camera with a price tag of some $6k, large sensors, low mp, lowest noise. They should know better I suppose...
And give it a front face camera as well for videoconferencing, also with care for night video conferencing.
 
This idea of a megapixel myth is only partially true. Sure, cetarus parabus, a sensor with more pixels will produce a noisier image looking at the image as a 100% crop or 1:1, but when you resize the larger image from the the higher megapixel sensor to the same size as an image from a sensor with less pixels, you get a cleaner picture. This is particularly obvious in a comparison between the 18MP sensor in the Canon 550D dslr and the 12MP Nikon.
 
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