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Isn't this a technological choice though? Cameras are sufficiently advanced nowadays so it's possible to take horizontal video while keeping the phone vertical,

by ddalex 2y ago

Isn't this a technological choice though? Cameras are sufficiently advanced nowadays so it's possible to take horizontal video while keeping the phone vertical, so it's just a software feature away (at the expense of horizontal resolution), or hw feature away (at the expense of a device internal gimbal)

rhplus 2y ago
You’d need square sensors, not an internal moving gimbal, so manufacturers would be left with a choice: should the square fit the circle or the circle fit the square? The first would lower quality and the second would increase costs and add wasted pixels (vignette).
- ddalex 2y ago
  Aren't all sensors square already (well 4:3, or 3:2) , and fitting the circle ?
  - rhplus 2y ago
    No, 4:3 is not a square. I found a discussion on the topic here[*]. The consensus seems to be that “wasted” sensor area outside the circle would not be marketable. https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/109452/is-there-any-camera-with-a-square-sensor https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/109452/is-there-an...
TeMPOraL 2y ago
It's not a technological choice, at least not at the level of camera design. It's trivial to record videos the right way; people just can't be arsed. Suppose you implement horizontal recording while the phone is vertical; this would mean the video preview is now scaled and takes only a fraction of the screen (the same way watching horizontal video on YouTube while in "portrait mode"), which people would find annoying. Alternatively, you could not scale the video; now the video preview displays only a vertical slice of the frame. It looks OK, but people would soon discover the actual video a screen's worth of image on each side of the preview, leading to anxiety and worry - people would have pay extra attention to not capture things that weren't intended to be on the video; they'd soon look for a way to turn this off. The unfortunate reality is, it's a social problem partially caused by a technological one. Vertical videos are driven by the phone form-factor and because portraits and selfies actually need to be vertical, and people being people, shooting photos of themselves and other is what they care about the most.
- ddalex 2y ago
  So this comment and the sibling mentioning square sensors raise some good points. Let me rephrase the technological challenge: Make all phone screens square. All phones are now squares. Use Generative AI to fill in the sides of non-square screens. Problem solved. I think I need to make this an AI photo startup.

by ddalex 2y ago

rhplus 2y ago

You’d need square sensors, not an internal moving gimbal, so manufacturers would be left with a choice: should the square fit the circle or the circle fit the square? The first would lower quality and the second would increase costs and add wasted pixels (vignette).

ddalex 2y ago
Aren't all sensors square already (well 4:3, or 3:2) , and fitting the circle ?
- rhplus 2y ago
  No, 4:3 is not a square. I found a discussion on the topic here[*]. The consensus seems to be that “wasted” sensor area outside the circle would not be marketable. https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/109452/is-there-any-camera-with-a-square-sensor https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/109452/is-there-an...

TeMPOraL 2y ago

It's not a technological choice, at least not at the level of camera design. It's trivial to record videos the right way; people just can't be arsed. Suppose you implement horizontal recording while the phone is vertical; this would mean the video preview is now scaled and takes only a fraction of the screen (the same way watching horizontal video on YouTube while in "portrait mode"), which people would find annoying. Alternatively, you could not scale the video; now the video preview displays only a vertical slice of the frame. It looks OK, but people would soon discover the actual video a screen's worth of image on each side of the preview, leading to anxiety and worry - people would have pay extra attention to not capture things that weren't intended to be on the video; they'd soon look for a way to turn this off. The unfortunate reality is, it's a social problem partially caused by a technological one. Vertical videos are driven by the phone form-factor and because portraits and selfies actually need to be vertical, and people being people, shooting photos of themselves and other is what they care about the most.

ddalex 2y ago
So this comment and the sibling mentioning square sensors raise some good points. Let me rephrase the technological challenge: Make all phone screens square. All phones are now squares. Use Generative AI to fill in the sides of non-square screens. Problem solved. I think I need to make this an AI photo startup.