Sony's 16.41 megapixel camera coming to a phone near you

[Emil]

Sony has announced the commercialization of two new Exmor R back-illuminated CMOS image sensors with improved photographic performance, significantly high sensitivity, and low noise. Sony claims the sensors can capture high quality photos and videos in low light settings, even on mobile phones without camera flash. The company plans to launch two new lens modules equipped with these image sensors, making it the first time that Exmor R is commercialized for the use in mobile phones.

The Exmor R series, which adopts the 1.12ìm unit pixel size for mobile phones thanks to the company's proprietary fine pixel fabrication process technology, has yet to reach its peak. Sony will continue to provide corresponding small lens modules, especially for smartphones with large displays and limited space for components.

IMX081PQ (1.12ìm unit pixel size) is a 16.41MP CMOS sensor that shoots 1080p video at 30fps and uses back-illumination to reduce visual noise. It will be offered to manufacturers in January, and you should at least expect it to show up in Sony Ericsson phones.

IMX105PQ (1.4ìm unit pixel size) is the second sensor, at 8.13MP, designed for slim phones. The corresponding lens module is actually the world's smallest and thinnest for phones, so hopefully we will be able to see it in phones with physical QWERTY keyboards.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/40576-sonys-1641-megapixel-camera-coming-to-a-phone-near-you.html

 

[posermobile89]

Lets hope this comes out and doesnt cost an arm and a leg. These look awesome!

 

[mattfrompa]

I don't care as much about the super high MP, but more that they note the lens does well in low light. If I was Sony I wouldn't limit this technology to Sony mobiles.

 

[MrAnderson]

I wonder how much they will cost to play with in an electrical engineering prototype complonent unit cost???

 

[Mushroom]

After a point, MP is just a marketing gimic...IIRC that's around 6-8 MP.

 

[Solo2Wings]

The more megapixels that can be captured just means that the picture can be enlarged more. But the quality of the picture is determined by the image processing engine in the sensor. As a previous commenter wrote, how it does in low light is just as important, or how it brings out colors. That is why, as a professional photographer, I work with Raw images (coming straight from the lens without processing) and I determine the colors in Photoshop.

 

[Per Hansson]

The Nokia N8 seems quite impressive on paper, it has a 1/1.83″ image sensor, nevermind the silly megapixel counts (They should stop at ca 5MP, anything over that just increases noise)
What does this have?

 

[Regenweald]

16 megapixels to be viewed on a 3-4" screen or on average, a 17-24" monitor. I get that professionals need this kind of megapixel count, but this is getting retarded. I'd prefer a large high quality sensor, and 3 to 6 MP. But larger numbers sell better don't they ?

 

[Guest]

"The more megapixels that can be captured just means that the picture can be enlarged more. But the quality of the picture is determined by the image processing engine in the sensor."

That is only a partial factor. As in audio, garbage in -> garbage out and the processing engine can only do so much to "fake" a better picture. It is useless to increase pixel density in the sensor if all it does it add more noise, processing time (therefore less pictures per second and slower computer edit and load times), and uses massively more storage space per picture. Unfortunately, this is often done simply for the purpose of better advertising "hooks".

Sometimes, the extra-pixels are used for "pixel binning" techniques to arrive at that same lower resolution with similar quality but why bother.

Of course there are other factors (CCD vs CMOS, backighting etc.) but <<pixel density>> on the photo-sensitive chip is still quite often the most important factor involved in a quality picture in regular and low-light scenarios. That's why the pro cameras use bigger chips and have often dramatically better resolution, color and noise specs per pixel.

At the moment, lesser pixels is better on smaller chips and we should be buying from camera manufacturers who don't try to deceive us with misleading "more is better" falsity.

 

[matrix86]

Regenweald said:
I'd prefer a large high quality sensor, and 3 to 6 MP. But larger numbers sell better don't they ?

They do indeed, because the average consumer is stupid and thinks "ooh, large number mean good, me must have". People don't realize there's more to it than just how many pixels there are.

 

[Trillionsin]

Wooooow. 16.41 megapixels.. I thought my 5mp camera on my phone was enough...

 

[Guest]

wow, 16.1 mega pixels.
nokia had just release n8 with 12mp camera...lolx