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Sony's Dual Camera to See Inclusion in Devices From 'Major Smartphone Players'
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This news made me think the dual lens iPhone could be the iPhone 7S in 2017, not the iPhone 7...
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You won't get DSLR quality anyway...
What ?!? Actually phablets are quite popular among women...
The sensors can't and don't eliminate "pattern noise" (it's not pattern noise, btw, it's just good old poisson noise, which has no pattern). The noise is just reduced by using pixels that are as big as possible and by using noise reduction algorithms, which in my opinion should be optional in every camera, as they usually suck. What the algorithms do is that they average neighbouring pixels by assuming they are the same colour (or not), therefore improving the statistics for that area. It's a trade-in, the covariance of the pixels is reduced, but the correlation between the pixels is blown up, or in less statistical terms, the image gets blurry and muddy. So in any case, there is always a LOT to be gained there.
In opposite: You always have the same thing in the same time. You can't pick one of the two. Although, thinking about it, you can have reduced noise and no detail enhancement. Anyway, here's an example what the combination of two slightly shifted images can do under best circumstances:
As you can see, the resolution is greatly enhanced and the noise is reduced as well. Note, this has no other processing in it, it's really just aligning and averaging the images. Usually some more post-processing is involved, i.e. a noise reduction filter as mentioned above would probably get rid of the noise in the light area mostly. Also some sharpening/deconvolution to bring out the details more. There are some pretty clever algorithms that make the best use of the available information.
This multiple lens malarky is interesting in that it points to an image produced simultaneously from multiple sources therefore :
Is the image a fusion of two images and therefore an impression rather than a rendition of actuality ?
Could the spacing between the lenses create a sense of dimensionality coded into a single image that can be decoded ?
Does this still image technology have implications for video ?
Will the claimed advantages be a revolution in digital imagery so that all digital cameras both moving and still will be made this way ?
Was that last strong coffee a touch too much ?
Is the image a fusion of two images and therefore an impression rather than a rendition of actuality ?
Could the spacing between the lenses create a sense of dimensionality coded into a single image that can be decoded ?
Does this still image technology have implications for video ?
Will the claimed advantages be a revolution in digital imagery so that all digital cameras both moving and still will be made this way ?
Was that last strong coffee a touch too much ?
Having hardware redundency for lenses is a great idea, I cant beleive nobody has thought of this before. Truly innovative.
Soooooo... if you don't have dual cameras, your phone doesn't even have "decent specs"?
That's a silly thing to say.
I have a 6S Plus, she has a 6. She can't get her fingers around mine comfortably.
While I don't doubt they are popular among some women, I suspect they either have larger hands or don't care and work through it. I also expect hand size is part of the reason around the revival of the smaller phone revival, especially [for parts of the world] where people's hands aren't as large as ours.
Wait. You want a 911 and the only thing standing between you and your Porsche is family? Simple solution. Ditch the family. vroom vroom
Close but not quite. While 4K video gets you a lot closer than 1080p frames used to, the iPhone 6s outputs a 4032x3024 resolution image. The still frame is only 3840x2160. It crops in some on the video on width as well as height. Right now it's not significant, but 4K video is likely going to be the max for some time, while 12mp sensors may not be. But yeah, right now it's not a significant difference. And yes, I recognize that all of those features can't come true as some preclude others.
I'm pretty sure you can. This isn't the same as having a more pixel dense sensor which would increase noise without significant technological advancements for photo receptor interference dampening. With this technology, it seems like you can have your cake and eat it too. It merges exposures from both cameras, slightly offset (perhaps even by a few mm) to do a sort of interpolation but without making up image information—if that makes sense? I'm not sure how else to explain it, but the two sensors capture simultaneously and fill in each other's resolution gaps with additional information using advanced algorithms. I'm pretty sure there are some cameras from companies like Olympus that do something similar—although I think you have to be a lot more careful about moving subjects as well as being very careful with handholding the camera. This wouldn't be an issue with two cameras snapping simultaneously, and is the huge benefit of these crazy fast A-series processors that are approaching laptop speeds (or even surpassing some on the iPad Pro).
I'm not sure if they were logical as no other phone maker seems to be doing it. The key is utilizing these crazy fast new chips to enable advanced photographic applications we haven't thought of before. It's an exciting time for photography (isn't it always?) but even more so when we're talking about the camera we always have on us. Which brings me to my next point…
Sorry, I moved one of your quotes down a paragraph to juxtaposition it against your last quote. This is what I'm talking about—and I think what most of the rumors have alluded to—it being able to blur the background much like a narrow depth of field using a higher-end, large aperture prime on a dSLR. Will the image be as clean? No. But they're getting closer every year and the biggest drawback to phone photography in 2016 is the crappy lens (well and low-light, as you mentioned). But at this point it's hard to tell what kind of quality you could get out of multiple camera setups using advanced software, so I'm cautiously optimistic!
I was just reminded in that last paragraph about another potential benefit, although it sort of precludes other benefits: Lower resolutions on each sensor? If you could go with a lower pixel pitch, you could get better high-ISO/low light performance, and make up for it on the high-res photo merge. I'm just not sure exactly what that would do to 4K as I doubt you could merge two 6mp sensor streams into a unified 4K stream on the fly—at least not for several more years of processor upgrades. As it stands now, my 6s can sometimes get a little choppy with 4K video playback. Or perhaps only one camera could be lower resolution, but it could still help boost the resolution vs a single sensor alone. Or just keep them separate. Such as a 6mp+12mp combo? One is a low-light boss, the other is for regular photos. IDK, seems like that could get kinda crazy, but it's just another possibility I thought of.
So the point of this rant is what? That Apple should design products that piss off the least amount of people?
…ummm…not sure if trolling but……yeah? That's kind of the general minimum goal a company would set with product design. Hopefully they aim to set the bar higher than "Does this offend our customer that only larger, predominantly male users can get a fancy new camera upgrade in a massive phone?" With a device this personal and handheld, you have to consider the majority at a minimum. And yeah—hopefully do better than that!
In reality it will be compact camera performance. DSLR quality is largely reflected by the optics. Crystal, Size, Lens diaphragm and element arrangement. The smartphone will not be able to duplicate the optical advantage. This trickery may be able to get some image quality closer to a 300 dollar compact camera.
Disagreeing with you doesn't automatically equate to trolling, but thanks. And my point is Apple doesn't design to not offend. They set the trends...this has been the case for many years.
Wah, Wah, Steve Jobs Would'a not liked this or that, get a new argument. The guy is dead, he can't respond, He's DEAD.
Move along, nothing to see here, Move along.
At the same time, having two images for the same time span, but offset slightly, gives comparative data which can be used to correct for image noise, and actually produce an image better than just doubling the sensor size. Not enough to completely make up for the total difference in sensor size between the paired camera and the DSLR, of course.
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On very close subjects, maybe, but probably not to a degree useful in practice (at least based on the concept rendering in the article). The cameras are too close together for that.
The way your response reads is very trolly, referring to my well thought out response as a rant, and then asking a really vague, obvious, open-ended question. I disagree with LOTS of people on here who are not trolls.
oh.. great.. your robotic knee jerk reaction was SO much more insightful and informative than mine where at least I offered some sort of observation and commentary about the product and direction of the company. Have you nothing better to do than denigrate honest opinions?
What are YOUR opinions about this issue? Do you have any?.. Or do you simply come here to troll the comments of others?
"Dual-lens technology has previously been used in smartphones such as the HTC M8, but it may soon become a more popular option following rumors that Apple plans to incorporate a dual-lens system into its iPhone 7 Plus." Wouldn't a more honest, less fanboi sentence read "...popular option INCLUDING rumors that Apple..." Not everything in the industry is Apple-driven, especially cameras.
That said a better camera would be much appreciated. My iPhone 6 shoots pretty good ones but there is a lot of room for improvement in both resolutions and detail.
That said a better camera would be much appreciated. My iPhone 6 shoots pretty good ones but there is a lot of room for improvement in both resolutions and detail.
Now that's a COMPLETELY different argument that I also support. I'm tired of this race to thin..... It's all the sissies that can't hold their phone up for any amount of time crying about phone size/weight.
Really? You're disturbed by the crowds of sissies protesting with signs about how their phones are too thick and heavy?
Because I can't recall any such protests. I can't recall any such group. It seems to me like Apple themselves seem to be the only ones preoccupied with making the iPhone thinner.