OmniVision Touts 4K Sensor for Smartphones

[Russian]

This could potentially be some really awesome technology, the only problem is that smartphones and tablets aren't quite ready yet...

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...artphones.aspx

[FischOderAal]

There are already enough people out there taking pictures with their tablets m(

[masterg]

lady smith black mombazo! 16mp @ 30fps?! i want that

[Russian]

There are already enough people out there taking pictures with their tablets m(

I know, it makes me rage quite a bit... but if people want to do it, you have to enable them, right?

[masterg]

if people want to do it, make a device, put a 50% mark up on it and let the buyers have fun

[phantomferrari]

i wish instead of shrinking the sensors and adding more pixels they would make the sensors bigger. i wouldnt mind if most of the back of the cellphone was occupied by the sensor. i know that would be expensive but one can dream. just wish more people didnt think that more megapixels is better. im also sick of this whole my phone is thinner than yours thing going on. there is only so thin a phone needs to be!! i rather have a bigger battery or image sensor than a stupidly thin phone. end rant

[Caparroz]

i wish instead of shrinking the sensors and adding more pixels they would make the sensors bigger. i wouldnt mind if most of the back of the cellphone was occupied by the sensor. i know that would be expensive but one can dream. just wish more people didnt think that more megapixels is better. im also sick of this whole my phone is thinner than yours thing going on. there is only so thin a phone needs to be!! i rather have a bigger battery or image sensor than a stupidly thin phone. end rant

Big sensor = big lenses, optical physics 101...

[Cold Fussion]

Look forward to seeing the noisy trash this thing spits out.

[Kallenator]

Big sensor = big lenses, optical physics 101...

Well, yes and no. I dear say that this is pretty damn amazing, and it works on APS-C:
http://www.photozone.de/pentax/124-p...w--test-report

What is mysterious to me is how they actually think that they have good enough glass to resolve 16Mp at this size...
Compare this to the Sony A-77 which has a pixel pitch of 3.89um, this camera has serious issues if the glass is not very good and the ISO below 800.
That being said the A-77 sensor has 9 times bigger pixels than this new OmniVision sensor.
It's by all means a cool engineering feat, but I doubt it will give any higher performance other than a higher numbers on the data sheet.

[JaD]

Much larger sensors are very applicable to modern smartphones.
Producers just have to get out of the >8mm madness; there's a huge market for a smartcameraphone with a big battery. Thicker and heavier, yes, but not that much really: considering the current technical prowess of most OEM, it's perfectly doable in 15mm or less. Heck, even if it was 20 it'd still be great when you consider how often people carry around both their phone and compact. How can't they see it'd sell like hotcakes?

[Russian]

Well, yes and no. I dear say that this is pretty damn amazing, and it works on APS-C:
http://www.photozone.de/pentax/124-p...w--test-report

What is mysterious to me is how they actually think that they have good enough glass to resolve 16Mp at this size...
Compare this to the Sony A-77 which has a pixel pitch of 3.89um, this camera has serious issues if the glass is not very good and the ISO below 800.
That being said the A-77 sensor has 9 times bigger pixels than this new OmniVision sensor.
It's by all means a cool engineering feat, but I doubt it will give any higher performance other than a higher numbers on the data sheet.

Lol, I think they'll just defer to Carl Zeiss for that problem.

Also, in terms of phone thickness, I completely agree. I think too many phone manufacturers are obsessed with thickness. Nobody gives a crap about phones if they're thinner than 10mm... nobody really cares about the difference between 8mm and 10mm, hell even 15mm (like you said).

When you consider that motorola only added 1mm of thickness to their phone by increasing the battery to 3300mAh, I think nobody can disagree that it's worth every mm.

[BeepBeep2]

Look forward to seeing the noisy trash this thing spits out.

Did you not see the Nokia PureView?

[Caparroz]

Well, yes and no. I dear say that this is pretty damn amazing, and it works on APS-C:
http://www.photozone.de/pentax/124-p...w--test-report

What is mysterious to me is how they actually think that they have good enough glass to resolve 16Mp at this size...
Compare this to the Sony A-77 which has a pixel pitch of 3.89um, this camera has serious issues if the glass is not very good and the ISO below 800.
That being said the A-77 sensor has 9 times bigger pixels than this new OmniVision sensor.
It's by all means a cool engineering feat, but I doubt it will give any higher performance other than a higher numbers on the data sheet.

Small prime lenses like this one were available from Leica since 1930's for (proper) 35mm. The problem is that the bigger the film or sensor the focal point must move further away. Besides that, designing and building acceptable glass this small is VERY expensive, let alone the cost of a big sensor by itself. Imagine a 60mm+ thick phone costing $2000 or more...

[gumballguy]

nobody really cares about the difference between 8mm and 10mm, hell even 15mm (like you said).

8-10mm is ok.

I'm not touching 15mm and the 20mm suggested earlier is ABSURD!

[-X-hellfire]

8-10mm is ok.

I'm not touching 15mm and the 20mm suggested earlier is ABSURD!

Serious people, like ex presidents, use mobile phones that can be used as lethal weapons i f needed.


[spoiler][/spoiler]


.

[JaD]

Nobody's taking anyone's 8mm phones away just because we wish for thicker phones to become available.

[Cold Fussion]

Did you not see the Nokia PureView?

I don't have to. I only has to look at the megapixel count and the sensor size to know the pictures will be appalling, just like the rest of smart phone cameras.

[STEvil]

haters gonna hate

[rado992]

I don't have to. I only has to look at the megapixel count and the sensor size to know the pictures will be appalling, just like the rest of smart phone cameras.

See, that's just being presumptuous. They have a 41MP sensor in there but the actual images the camera produces will be closer to 5MP due to the pixel binning they'll be using, taking the best pixel out of every 7. Of course, there will probably be a 40MP mode and that will be quite noisy, but no matter. Everything is explained quite well here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/02...th-41MP-sensor So more MP != more noise, at least if they use the sensor right. The optics in most smartphones, however, are indeed appalling, but the PureView seems to do a quite decent job at that as well.

[CrazyNutz]

The biggest problem with small sensors, and small optics is light gathering. The inability to gather enough light = noise, also bluring since the shutter speed must be so slow. They should be focusing on better quality IMO, but hey I guess higher numbers are what sell.

[Russian]

See, that's just being presumptuous. They have a 41MP sensor in there but the actual images the camera produces will be closer to 5MP due to the pixel binning they'll be using, taking the best pixel out of every 7. Of course, there will probably be a 40MP mode and that will be quite noisy, but no matter. Everything is explained quite well here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/02...th-41MP-sensor So more MP != more noise, at least if they use the sensor right. The optics in most smartphones, however, are indeed appalling, but the PureView seems to do a quite decent job at that as well.

Have you seen the 38MP shots? it produces 38MP, 8MP and 5MP I believe... The 38MP shots look amazing. But for low-light, I do believe you need to do 5MP to get a real good 3200 ISO style shot with little to no noise.

[Manicdan]

Have you seen the 38MP shots? it produces 38MP, 8MP and 5MP I believe... The 38MP shots look amazing. But for low-light, I do believe you need to do 5MP to get a real good 3200 ISO style shot with little to no noise.

i downloaded a few of those raw images. in their native res they look like other cell images blown up, maybe a little better. but when put down to 1080 res they looked flawless, while camera phone images looked like crap even shrunk from 8MP to 1080p