Did Apple Acquire Imsense Ltd for HDR Capabilities in iOS 4.1?

[cupcakes2000]

Sorry cupcakes, you are just plain wrong on this one. Auto bracketing _does_ take multiple exposures in succession, and has done since the "auto" first got added to "bracketing" with the combination of electronic exposure controls and motor drives in film cameras in the late '70s.

What imsense have done isn't magic "recreation" of images by the camera, but if they have worked out multi-exposure on the iphone camera to use a fast enough shutter and short enough interval between exposures to make hand-held auto-bracketing practical for HDR, this is a worhwhile achievement.

Actually, it is you that are wrong. As far as my camera is concerned using auto bracketing takes ONE exposure. It is very easy to test this, as I have just done, by shooting a moving car.

It is in the same position in each photo, it's just at different exposures.

If I shoot in RAW, each exposure within the bracket is a RAW file too.

Like I said before I don't have an iphone so I don't know about what tech they are using......

 

[cupcakes2000]

By "recreate" I'm assuming you mean by processing the first image to make the additional images, instead of reading the sensor output three times.

Would that work as the sensor doesn't record enough range to start with otherwise you wouldn't need to use HDR.
So it would taking one image making two lossy versions of it then combining then back to somehow get more information than you start with.

To me it has to be at least two reads of the sensor and probably three so they have the base image and the two either side. So they have more information to build the final image out of.

Maybe the word 'recreate' was the wrong choice of words then. I end up with three RAW files.

 

[Avatar74]

Just to clarify to Macrumors. This is NOT "true HDR" imaging.

True High Dynamic Range imaging involves sampling at 16 or 32 bits per color channel, vs. 8-bit RGB. This allows natively a much broader range of exposure, several stops above and below traditional 8-bit imaging.

This faux HDR combines multiple exposure values for a "best of" balanced image, but it doesn't give the camera an inherent high dynamic range for luminance sampling. The images are still sampled in an 8-bit per channel color space, and still stored as 8-bit per channel files.

 

[fxtech]

You Sir have got it all backwards, I'm sorry to say. *s* First of all, there is no such thing as a particular "HDR file format". Whether it is JPEG, RAW or some other fileformat doesn't have anything to do with it. You may save an HDR photo as JPEG, no problem there.

Oh, you work in the film industry too? If so, why haven't you heard about the EXR format, which is a "true" HDR format?

Since you don't seem to be aware of that, I have to find your credibility to be a bit lacking.

Really, it's you that has it backward.

 

[fxtech]

No. There's no way you can extract information from a photo that isn't there in the first place. That is, you can't bring out detail from a sky that is burnt out because of overexposure, or recreate details that have been lost in utter blackness in an underexposed photo. If that were possible through software processing all cameras would have that sort of software-correction built into their image processing engines. You need more than one exposure to do HDR.

*BUT* - you *CAN* do this *IF* you are using a "true" HDR image format. Which the iPhone does not create. This was the basis for my original argument.

 

[fxtech]

No but thats my point! It's not gonna be three photos in quick succession if it uses auto bracketing! The camera takes one exposure and then recreates a further two, one stop or whatever either side.

High-end cameras can do this because their sensors can capture a much larger dynamic range than with low-end sensors.

 

[mdude85]

Sorry, but you're wrong about what HDR is and isn't. You CANNOT make an HDR image from just one exposure. No can do.
True HDR IS the process of merging multiple exposures into one image!

Hm .... "true" HDR is actually just taking a photograph with a sensor having a higher dynamic range output than another sensor. What you're referring to is tone-mapping. And it is possible to create a tone-mapped image without combining multiple exposures, for instance by dodging and burning. Nothing about HDR requires that you merge multiple LDR exposures into one image.

Gosh, barely anyone seems to know what HDR is anymore.

 

[err404]

Actually, it is you that are wrong. As far as my camera is concerned using auto bracketing takes ONE exposure. It is very easy to test this, as I have just done, by shooting a moving car.

It is in the same position in each photo, it's just at different exposures.

If I shoot in RAW, each exposure within the bracket is a RAW file too.

Like I said before I don't have an iphone so I don't know about what tech they are using......

Not that I don't believe you, but what camera are you using? In every camera that I have seen, Auto Bracketing is a burst of shots at separate exposures. (Some very high end cameras may be different)

For example; Nikon D3 takes 2 to 9 shots separated by 1 EV for a total AEB range of 8. These shot are taken at 9 fps (11 in DX mode).

The iPhone definitely does separate shots also, and you can see the artifact from it. The Apple HDR does some interesting tricks to reduce these artifacts. Only the dark pixels from the over exposed shot are blended back in and the reverse for the underexposed.

FYI - the burstable speed of the 3G/3GS is far lower then the 4. This may have impacted Apples decision to not include HDR in the older models.

 

[mdude85]

Not that I don't believe you, but what camera are you using? In every camera that I have seen, Auto Bracketing is a burst of shots at separate exposures. (Some very high end cameras may be different)

For example; Nikon D3 takes 2 to 9 shots separated by 1 EV for a total AEB range of 8. These shot are taken at 9 fps (11 in DX mode).

Auto bracketing does not require the photographs to be taken in a single burst, but the images can be taken in a single burst as desired.

For instance, in an auto bracket setting, one could take a single image, then 5 seconds later take another image, then 5 seconds later take a third image and each image would be bracketed accordingly.

Alternatively, one could shoot a bracketed shot in continuous mode in one burst.

It's just personal preference. I guess most people prefer to use burst mode so there is not as much movement between the images.

 

[Maperns]

We'll know if Apple acquired them if the FLICKR account gets deleted by tomorrow!

And Steve Jobs will probably fire the person who missed deleting it! LOL

Well, the flickr account is down. Jobs must be firing that person right now! LOL

 

[err404]

Auto bracketing does not require the photographs to be taken in a single burst, but the images can be taken in a single burst as desired.

For instance, in an auto bracket setting, one could take a single image, then 5 seconds later take another image, then 5 seconds later take a third image and each image would be bracketed accordingly.

Alternatively, one could shoot a bracketed shot in continuous mode in one burst.

It's just personal preference. I guess most people prefer to use burst mode so there is not as much movement between the images.

Agreed. My comment was in regards to cupcake's claim that cameras generate auto bracketed images from a single sensor exposure.
While it is possible, it's not common in today's cameras. I was providing an example the the fastest auto bracketing speeds for a common pro-summer DSLR.

 

[mdude85]

Agreed. My comment was in regards to cupcake's claim that cameras generate auto bracketed images from a single sensor exposure.
While it is possible, it's not common in today's cameras. I was providing an example the the fastest auto bracketing speeds for a common pro-summer DSLR.

Autobacketing is by definition taking multiple photos at different exposures (or white balances, or what have you). Whether you press the shutter button once or multiple times to get multiple shots depends on whether you're in single shot or continuous mode. To my knowledge, the CMOS sensors in today's SLRs are incapable of capturing multiple exposures during a single shutter actuation, unless enabling a live preview system. Even then, the exposures are not saved to the card at full resolution, they are merely displayed on the LCD screen in the form of a video.

Maybe that poster is confusing bracketing with metering. Both metering and bracketing allow the photographer to determine the best exposure for the scene, but metering does so using one shot whereas bracketing does so using multiple shots.

 

[Kwill]

Poof!

UPDATE: Flickr account is no longer active.

 

[garoto]

That's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? Now if only I can convince my wife that we can start buying a new phone every two years _after_ upgrading to the iPhone-4.

ohh then you've got a second problem!

!@#$%^&*(!*&^%# "oops!" what was that under my tire?

sry, but something must be done, it's just such an awesome all around device!!