Apple Takes Early Step Towards iPhones With 'Above 12-Megapixel' Rear Cameras

Relentless Power said:
I don't disagree that the dual camera would be appreciated for both iPhone models. But that's what gives the Plus model the separation of having the more premium features for the larger model. I think if Apple included the dual camera on the 4.7 iPhone, it would partially take the exclusivity factor
Away from the Plus model, being Apple
Wants the consumer upgrade to the larger, more expensive model.

In retrospect, look at last year How Apple
marketed the iPhone 7. Almost all of their marketing went directly towards the dual camera in the iPhone 7 Plus. I didn't see any marketing geared towards the 4.7 iPhone. Apple wants the consumer to see the full potential of what the Plus model can offer with the dual camera.
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I can see they want customers to buy the larger model since it is more expensive, but it is a shame they give such a premium feature only to the one able to use the plus model.
I hope this will end next year, when their lineup will hopefully feature the new bezel less design.

armhol said:
Doesn't 600 Million lens modules per MONTH seem a little excessive considering the amount of iPhones sold? This is still a massive amount if iPads are included.
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Yeah it seems like a lot, even if they have more than one customer. I'd say 60 instead of 600 million modules are more credible, even if they provide them to Apple, Samsung etc.
 
Yeah, you want larger pixels for better low-light photography. A larger camera sensor would help with this. Twelve Megapixels is plenty at this point. If they are increasing the pixel count, I really hope they are also getting a larger camera sensor. They just increased the sensor last year in the iPhone 7 for the first time since the 5s, but I'd still like a larger one in the upcoming iPhone. Maybe something like a 1/1.7″. If they keep the same 12MP camera, then it would have the largest pixels of any iPhone ever at like 1.9 µm (compared to the current best of 1.5µm in the iPhone 5s and 6). For comparison, the iPhone 6s has 1.2µm, and I've read that the iPhone 7 has 1.3µm, but I think that the iPhone 7 might actually be the same 1.2µm pixels as the iPhone 6s. Apple has been less vocal about the camera sensor after the pixel size shrinkage.
 
Keirasplace said:
What does it have to do with this?

My Canon G16 has 12MPx and its a much better camera that any smartphone on earth so this is kind of a non sequitur.
If they can keep the noise down in such small pixels that's OK, otherwise its useless. Getting more Mpx of noise is not giving you more actual info.
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It's evident that you don't know what a non sequitur is....
 
armhol said:
Doesn't 600 Million lens modules per MONTH seem a little excessive considering the amount of iPhones sold? This is still a massive amount if iPads are included.
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Yep... there's something weird about that number.

For some context... there were 340 million smartphones shipped last quarter... which would be 113 million smartphones per month.

So this company "Largan" producing 600 million lens modules per month is already too high even if they were supplying EVERY smartphone in the world. (which I doubt they are)

Once again... Digitimes raises more questions than it answers. :p
 
The unawareness of phone lovers regarding photography is tremendous. Iphone cameras are positioned in the lower pixel count, with so called "bigger pixels capturing more light and having less noise", yet they struggle to be in the top 5 phone cameras.
 
Sunny1990 said:
A 18-megaxiel camera is going to be awesome, specially with a wider aperture. Morepixels produce better low light photos and the more pixels you capture, the more you can crop out.
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Quite to the contrary: The larger the individual pixel, the more light it can capture. The best example is the Sony A7S camera, which has only 12 Megapixel and a highest ISO of 409 600 !!
 
pratikindia said:
There are many phones that can match iPhone 7 camera capability.Apple must do something about camera this year.
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What Does this even mean? Most of the smart phone competitor cameras to the iPhone are very close in detail. Apple Improves the iPhone 7 camera every single year, even if it's incremental, they manage to make it better and more proficient. Last year, they introduced the dual camera. Which was a major leap for them. So I'm not sure what you mean by they "Must" do something, as if the iPhone camera is in dire need of a revamping.
 
kaiseryeahhh said:
so the iPhone that comes out on the 12th will have a good camera, but the super good camera will be that of the iPhone of 2018, and so we continue with the wheel to spend 1000€ each year.
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<SPOILER> The camera on the 2032 iPhone will blow your mind.</SPOILER>
 
Meaningless megapixel bump for next year. Means they have no better tech or innovation plans post-iPhone X.
 
kaiseryeahhh said:
so the iPhone that comes out on the 12th will have a good camera, but the super good camera will be that of the iPhone of 2018, and so we continue with the wheel to spend 1000€ each year.
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They want to sell millions of phones every year, and they need good reasons to entice customers to upgrade their iPhone
I'm sure some feature will miss on the edition and we'll find them next year, as usual.

meaning-matters said:
Twelve million dots is enough detail for 99.9% mobile pictures.
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Sure, the resolution is already good enough. They need to focus on low light pictures, and enhance the scene understanding. With machine learning they'll be able to do amazing things, like recognising you're taking a picture of a sunset, or a pet, or a baby and act differently, all automatically.
And I'd like them to take advantage of the dual camera even if you don't want portrait mode. For example store both lens pictures and let the user chose which picture to save later on, or have both always available. I think Samsung is doing something similar, letting user adjust the blur effect and see the wider picture even after taking a portrait. They're using a new codec to store images so they should be able to do it without wasting too much space, and they've increased storage so even the less expensive phone has room for a lot of shots.
 
jecowa said:
Yeah, you want larger pixels for better low-light photography. A larger camera sensor would help with this. Twelve Megapixels is plenty at this point. If they are increasing the pixel count, I really hope they are also getting a larger camera sensor. They just increased the sensor last year in the iPhone 7 for the first time since the 5s, but I'd still like a larger one in the upcoming iPhone. Maybe something like a 1/1.7″. If they keep the same 12MP camera, then it would have the largest pixels of any iPhone ever at like 1.9 µm (compared to the current best of 1.5µm in the iPhone 5s and 6). For comparison, the iPhone 6s has 1.2µm, and I've read that the iPhone 7 has 1.3µm, but I think that the iPhone 7 might actually be the same 1.2µm pixels as the iPhone 6s. Apple has been less vocal about the camera sensor after the pixel size shrinkage.
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Noise performance is roughly proportional to total captured light (sensor size/aperture) rather than pixel size. Pixel size barely factors into the equation. For instance, the Sony A7RII with 42MP has slightly better noise performance than its 12MP sibling, at the same target final image size.
Smaller pixels capture less light per pixel, but that's irrelevant.

Also, the article makes the mistake of equating screen pixels and camera pixels. A screen pixel contains full RGB information, where as a camera pixel captures either Red, Green or Blue, with two green pixels for every red and green in a Beyer layout. It requires four camera pixels to capture the full RGB information. The resolutions are NOT directly comparable.
 
Higher megapixel count is pointless unless it's paired with a bigger sensor so the pixel size isn't reduced. I guess this might be what Apple is (finally) doing, as all other flagship phones have long since abandoned 1/3" sensors and moved to 1/2.5" as the new standard size. (they've also long since abandoned mono audio recording in favour of surround recording, something else Apple should really, really catch up on)
 
Apple's scale really is a problem for them sometimes. Difficult to really push the technology when you simultaneously need millions of units per month.
 
MacRumors said:
Keep in mind that megapixels don't always matter, as even a TV or monitor with 4K Ultra HD resolution of 3,840×2,160 pixels only has roughly 8.3 megapixels, which isn't enough to display a 12-megapixel photo at full resolution.
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A 12 megapixel sensor is no where near enough to capture for a 4k display with any fidelity. There is a bayer filter in front of the sensor.
 
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