Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 6s Rear Camera Rumored to Retain 8-Megapixel Sensor
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Eventually, yes, they probably will. But I doubt it's coming this year, or possibly even next.
Apple is doing something with that camera ring. Jony Ive wouldn't stick it out there just for kicks. The ring in the 6s is going to be slightly different and allow for lens attachments. The current ring is just a placeholder to maintain form factor across 6/6s models.
People are so short sighted.
Prior to the invention of the flat panel display, any of today's smartphone spec sheets would have been considered "physics defying" too given the technology at the time.
Things change, new techniques are discovered, technology improves.
I'm also a long-time Canon user looking to make the switch, at least at home. Are the lenses too big on it with the adapter? I'm thinking something portable. I have a small bag that I carry my iPad in and it has a few padded sections for some small mirrorless camera gear. I'm thinking A7000 when that comes out and the Zeiss Sonnar T* E 24mm F1.8 ZA and Zeiss Sonnar T* 55mm F1.8 ZA. Do you own either of those and recommend them? I mainly shoot landscapes and wildlife, as well as chasing around my daughter who just learned to walk. So autofocus would be a must for tracking her, lol. My thinking is that I can keep my L glass and rent a 5Dr when I go on trips to photograph wildlife, but use the A7000 for landscapes/general use around town and my daughter. I might pick up an A7r instead if it goes cheaper after they update it to the rumored A7rII 50MP. I love shooting FF at work but it's expensive. Thanks!
I don't need a TV. I own a 5k iMac, and during black Friday I got a 4k 28" LCD monitor for $350, and 4k videos are amazing! You need to try it to believe it. Just go to http://www.libde265.org/downloads-videos/ and download the videos - the quality is mind blowing.
I've purposely purchased a Panasonic LX100 just to be able to do what my iPhone 6/6+ can't, and Samsung is releasing an NX500 that can take 28 megapixel photos / 4k video for $800. The tech is there and readily available to consumers, Apple really has no excuse to not enable it for their next generation of phones.
Their excuse is margins, so they wont because it would push the cost of the iPhone over $1k and people would FREAK! So instead, they will leave it as is and collect significant margins.
More megapixels wont necessarily improve photo quality. What more megapixels would definitely do, however, is increase the amount of storage each photo requires. The present state of storage on iPhones and iCloud leaves much to be desired: base level storage is very limited, and increased storage comes with steep price increases. Improving the state of iOS storage is, I think, is a prerequisite for Apple to increasing the size of all camera photos. Otherwise, bigger photos are just going to aggravate the existing limited storage problem. Unless Apple dramatically improves iOS storage this year, then I expect Apple to keep the same number of megapixels and finding other means of improving photo quality.
Apple has been perfectly able to improve its camera performance over the past years to put it consistently in the top smartphone ranks. What is your point?
How is anyone a sheep if they think the current camera performance is enough for them?
And be realistic: complaining here gets you nowhere. Apple is not interested in what Carlanga says on Macrumors. So if you have a legitimate beef then post it on Apple's feedback site. I guess you haven't done that yet right?
And yet 4k will still be in less than 20% of homes by the end of this year, my guess only. And the iMac isn't likely to sell tens of millions either.
I don't believe that the purpose of a smart phone camera is to fulfill every photography niche, such as creating 5K background images. It's the camera for capturing every day life events, and social interactions.
If you're trying to create a professional quality image for a professional resolution screen, I think it's reasonable to have to use a professional camera, that's not optimised for portability.
After reading this thread, I took a portrait photo on my iPhone, rotated to landscape and zoomed in so the picture filled the screen. No pixellation. No blur. The image still looked excellent.
But still. If you could have 16MP camera - without the added noise/degrading of image quality - that would be good right?
i haven't gotten the 6 (currently still have an iphone 5) but the camera is actually one of the bigger selling points for me.
Megapixels have nothing to do with quality, only size. So if some higher MP phones take better pictures than the iPhone, it's because of the lens or sensor or software or flash - not because of megapixels. In fact, as you increase the number of megapixels on a small cellphone image sensor, you degrade the quality.
Apple can and will improve the quality of photos, but it won't increase their size (megapixels) because there is no room to do so in a small cellphone without reducing quality.
the iphone 6 (assuming that what you are using) has a screen resolution of 1334x750
your photo taken at 8mpx has a resolution of 3264x2448
you would need to zoom / crop in your photo at least 250% in order to be zoomed in close enough for your photos and your display to be at 1:1.
until you've done that, you're not going to see pixelation of your photos since your display is significantly smaller than your photos.
Arguably not possible with current technology. Cramming more pixels onto the same size of sensor will increase size but reduce quality (by adding noise and losing information). And larger sensors won't be going in tiny cellphones any time soon.
8MP is already very close to 4k resolution.
Whats the point of having a higher mega pixel camera, if you and most people don't have any kind of way to view them at their full size.
Makes a lot more sense to improve the camera and photo quality without increasing the photo size/resolution. Similar to what apple has done for the past 3 Generations!! 5, 5S, and 6.
Also having the higher MP and larger photos, means they are going to take up more disk space and cloud space.
Whats the point of having a higher mega pixel camera, if you and most people don't have any kind of way to view them at their full size.
Makes a lot more sense to improve the camera and photo quality without increasing the photo size/resolution. Similar to what apple has done for the past 3 Generations!! 5, 5S, and 6.
Also having the higher MP and larger photos, means they are going to take up more disk space and cloud space.
If you have to "save" something for a later generation it means you're out of ideas.
Steve Jobs way was to bring the best and when it's done, go back to work.
I use canon L primes and some leica glass, so the lenses are not too big. Mind you I did one put the a7R on a 600mm F4... lol also I have never tried the sony glass, so cannot comment on that. The A7000 would be great! The downside of the A7 Series with leica/canon glass, the AF or manual in with Leica glass is very slow. You are not going to get any action shots... no way! If you want a cam for landscape, the A7R is Great. While I got rid of my 5DII I kept my 1DIV for action, the sony just suck at it, with adapters. As I said before, if you can track down a cheap RX1, its the true gem! Though the A7S is amazing for night photography, this thing shoots in pitch black almost...wow!
Yes, theoretically. But the MPs have to literally go somewhere on the sensor. So the more MP you jam into the same size sensor, the more noise you will get. Each MP gets progressively a smaller percentage of micron of sensor space. The size of the sensor is very constrained by the size of the phone (depth being the big issue, I believe). So while you can make a better sensor, I'd rather have that get devoted to decreasing noise and improving low light performance. As you point out, under good light conditions the iPhone currently takes a good picture. The only time I get a bad picture out of it is indoors or at night. But those are a huge % of my picturing taking needs. Indoors or at night dwarfs the amount of times I need to crop and zoom a picture.
Apple should focus on real priorities. That priority is taking pictures in low light environments.
Apple used similar modules for the 4s and the 5/5c, but not for the others. Both the 5s and the 6 used different modules unless one thinks the megapixel count is the only thing that matters.
This is a confusing piece. Largan doesn't make the sensor nor the camera module, only the lens. It's possible one could change the pixel count without changing the optics if the sensor size is kept the same.
The rumor is Apple is adding the 2nd camera to upgrade the camera as seen in their patent. This is in the very article we're discussing.
FFS - I KNOW.
My original comment was: "I know most companies do more pixels = smaller pixels = more noise, but it'd be good to have, say 16mp with no more noise. So, a more 'crop-able' picture, but not lower quality than 8MP."
I know that jamming more pixels into the same sized space isn't good, but can't you keep the pixels the same size, make the camera taller/wider and simply capture more detail? Is this possible? IF it is, it would be a nice feature.
iPhones were in less than 12% of homes last year. There'll probably be more 4k capable TVs in homes than iPhones based on the statistics.