4 ms·

IPhone 5 will reportedly sport 8 megapixel camera from Sony

11 points by anderzole 16y ago

hsmyers 16y ago
I look at 8 megapixel and wonder why such poor resolution. These days with RED Epic (http://www.red.com/ http://www.red.com/) and similar such on the market, surely better can be accomplished? I mean if it is good enough for hobbits, should be good enough for 'complex social interaction' right? Oh well maybe by IPhone 10 or so...
- halostatue 16y ago
  Physics, that's why. The sensor in the standard DSLR is fairly large and thick and has a fairly large aperture to let enough light hit it. The sensor in the iPhone is about the size of a pinky nail. You cannot get the megapixels the RED has without larger sensors.
- headShrinker 16y ago
  I am a little set back by the fact that we are comparing $50k pro video cameras to an iphone... higher resolution won't fix a crappy camera.
ams6110 16y ago
Anyone else think that this is a bit of overkill for what is effectively a snapshot camera? Nobody is doing serious photography with an iPhone.
- elii 16y ago
  That's true but don't forget that the iPhone is the world's most used digital camera.
  - Samuel_Michon 16y ago
    Charts: http://www.flickr.com/cameras/ http://www.flickr.com/cameras/
    - thematt 16y ago
      I'd be curious to know what Facebook's stats are, because they're WAY larger than any of the other photo sharing sites.
- mcav 16y ago
  No one's ever suffered because their camera's quality was too high. (resolution != quality)
  - headShrinker 16y ago
    This is true, but the megapixel god is a false profit as well. Often the highest resolution cameras don't take the best pictures. I have printed (pictures)[http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/media/photo/goog.jpg http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/media/photo/goog.jpg] taken with my iphone 3gs. I was never able to do so with my N1, or galaxy S. The quality just wasn't there even though those phones camera's where nearly double the resolution.
- ceejayoz 16y ago
  > Nobody is doing serious photography with an iPhone. Bullshit. A quick Googling reveals plenty of professional photographers using iPhones in their work. For example: http://www.chasejarvis.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=5&a=0&at=0 http://www.chasejarvis.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10...
  - ams6110 16y ago
    Professional != Serious, necessarily. If my wedding photographer showed up with an iPhone, I'd demand my money back.
    - ceejayoz 16y ago
      You need to define "serious", then. I'd consider photos taken with the intent of exhibiting them in a gallery pretty "serious" photography. I wouldn't hire an artist to do a building-sized mural in pencil, but that hardly means no one's doing serious art with pencils.
Yaggo 16y ago
5 MP is more than enough, better optics & bigger sensor, please.
george_morgan 16y ago
I'd rather see larger, rather than denser, sensors. Although I suspect the tiny apertures of phone cameras will always be the limiting factor.
Samuel_Michon 16y ago
I'm hoping the iPhone's camera will someday use a larger image sensor. That would improve the quality of images shot with an iPhone, a lot more than just increasing the resolution from 5MP to 8MP. The iPhone 4 has a 1/3.2" sensor [0]; it'd be nice if a future model had a 1/1.6" sensor or even a 4/3" sensor [1]. The camera in Nokia's N8 already has a sensor size of 1/1.83". [0] http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/sizing-up-the-iphone-4-for-shutterbugs.ars http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/sizing-up-the-ipho... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format#Table_of_sensor_sizes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format#Table_of_se...
- juiceandjuice 16y ago
  It won't. When you start getting bigger sensors, you start needing a longer focal plane or crazy optics with aspherical elements. This most definitely means a thicker phone.
  - Samuel_Michon 16y ago
    The iPhone 3GS' camera has a 1/4" sensor. With the iPhone 4, Apple shaved off 24 percent of the size of the iPhone 3GS. And yet, the iPhone 4's camera has a larger 1/3.2" sensor. Sure, to get to 1/1.6", the iPhone would have to get thicker. Personally, I wouldn't mind. I've owned every iPhone model since 2007, and honestly, the original iPhone was thin enough for me. (Of course, Apple likes to make their products thinner, not thicker, so it's not likely.)
aw3c2 16y ago
The resolution is completely irrelevant. The optics are what define quality.
- rimantas 16y ago
  Well… The sensors do define quality too, and there is some correlation with resolution, which is reverse: given the same size of the sensor having more pixels makes matters worse: less photons hitting one pixel, lower S/N ratio, noisier images, poor low light performance.

11 points by anderzole 16y ago

I look at 8 megapixel and wonder why such poor resolution. These days with RED Epic (http://www.red.com/ http://www.red.com/) and similar such on the market, surely better can be accomplished? I mean if it is good enough for hobbits, should be good enough for 'complex social interaction' right? Oh well maybe by IPhone 10 or so...

halostatue 16y ago
Physics, that's why. The sensor in the standard DSLR is fairly large and thick and has a fairly large aperture to let enough light hit it. The sensor in the iPhone is about the size of a pinky nail. You cannot get the megapixels the RED has without larger sensors.
headShrinker 16y ago
I am a little set back by the fact that we are comparing $50k pro video cameras to an iphone... higher resolution won't fix a crappy camera.

ams6110 16y ago

Anyone else think that this is a bit of overkill for what is effectively a snapshot camera? Nobody is doing serious photography with an iPhone.

elii 16y ago
That's true but don't forget that the iPhone is the world's most used digital camera.
- Samuel_Michon 16y ago
  Charts: http://www.flickr.com/cameras/ http://www.flickr.com/cameras/
  - thematt 16y ago
    I'd be curious to know what Facebook's stats are, because they're WAY larger than any of the other photo sharing sites.
mcav 16y ago
No one's ever suffered because their camera's quality was too high. (resolution != quality)
- headShrinker 16y ago
  This is true, but the megapixel god is a false profit as well. Often the highest resolution cameras don't take the best pictures. I have printed (pictures)[http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/media/photo/goog.jpg http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/media/photo/goog.jpg] taken with my iphone 3gs. I was never able to do so with my N1, or galaxy S. The quality just wasn't there even though those phones camera's where nearly double the resolution.
ceejayoz 16y ago
> Nobody is doing serious photography with an iPhone. Bullshit. A quick Googling reveals plenty of professional photographers using iPhones in their work. For example: http://www.chasejarvis.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=5&a=0&at=0 http://www.chasejarvis.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10...
- ams6110 16y ago
  Professional != Serious, necessarily. If my wedding photographer showed up with an iPhone, I'd demand my money back.
  - ceejayoz 16y ago
    You need to define "serious", then. I'd consider photos taken with the intent of exhibiting them in a gallery pretty "serious" photography. I wouldn't hire an artist to do a building-sized mural in pencil, but that hardly means no one's doing serious art with pencils.

Yaggo 16y ago

5 MP is more than enough, better optics & bigger sensor, please.

george_morgan 16y ago

I'd rather see larger, rather than denser, sensors. Although I suspect the tiny apertures of phone cameras will always be the limiting factor.

Samuel_Michon 16y ago

I'm hoping the iPhone's camera will someday use a larger image sensor. That would improve the quality of images shot with an iPhone, a lot more than just increasing the resolution from 5MP to 8MP. The iPhone 4 has a 1/3.2" sensor [0]; it'd be nice if a future model had a 1/1.6" sensor or even a 4/3" sensor [1]. The camera in Nokia's N8 already has a sensor size of 1/1.83". [0] http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/sizing-up-the-iphone-4-for-shutterbugs.ars http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/sizing-up-the-ipho... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format#Table_of_sensor_sizes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format#Table_of_se...

juiceandjuice 16y ago
It won't. When you start getting bigger sensors, you start needing a longer focal plane or crazy optics with aspherical elements. This most definitely means a thicker phone.
- Samuel_Michon 16y ago
  The iPhone 3GS' camera has a 1/4" sensor. With the iPhone 4, Apple shaved off 24 percent of the size of the iPhone 3GS. And yet, the iPhone 4's camera has a larger 1/3.2" sensor. Sure, to get to 1/1.6", the iPhone would have to get thicker. Personally, I wouldn't mind. I've owned every iPhone model since 2007, and honestly, the original iPhone was thin enough for me. (Of course, Apple likes to make their products thinner, not thicker, so it's not likely.)

aw3c2 16y ago

The resolution is completely irrelevant. The optics are what define quality.

rimantas 16y ago
Well… The sensors do define quality too, and there is some correlation with resolution, which is reverse: given the same size of the sensor having more pixels makes matters worse: less photons hitting one pixel, lower S/N ratio, noisier images, poor low light performance.