Quad Bayer sensors: what they are and what they are not
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- Nick Tagataka
- Y}N
- 09 Jun 2019
Anonymous, 09 Jun 2019You mean phones can apply fake DR ... Because they show s... moreWhat's the big deal about "applying fake DR" (I get what you're trying to say but if I take what you said literally it won't make sense) though, HDR processing is what every smartphones do and there's no point of not having better algorithms for it if it is available.
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- AnonD-731363
- SH3
- 09 Jun 2019
Anonymous, 09 Jun 2019The phone takes eternity to take photos using lower resolut... moreWell we will see.
Soon or later even this will be possible.
If camera can make this phone should do it too.
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- Nagar
- D0H
- 09 Jun 2019
Can you guys do a video about these kind of post. Good post.
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- Wayne.
- 7tn
- 09 Jun 2019
There is probably more going on than the article thinks.
A 48mp pixel produces 48mp detail. If the focus is not perfect, that's actually an advantage dealing with Bayer color sensor images. Bayer is not the best in demosaicing, so they use a device called a optical low pass filter, which spreads the light out into neighboring pixels. Not being able to resolve focus to a point smaller than the pixel is going help iron out problems, but reduces contrast between pixels. As long as it doesn't spread too much and smudges the image. The important thing is that the peak value of defocus happens in the pixel, which can be used to get some data at that resolution. Some "promoted" people don't realise this. What you do loose, apart from some accuracy of the pixel, is accuracy of demosaicing of color. But don't expect the camera phone to go this far. The point is, the real loss from Quad Bayer should be color accuracy. But if you view each colored pixel being attached to two other neighbouring colors, then there is information there to demosaic. You could better produce a 12mp on this sensor by centering these bigger pixels over the quad Bayer corner pixels, giving three colors each pixel.
But, one of the biggest detail destroying problems you can get, mostly on video, is not enough data per frame to preserve image quality. If you have four times more data for a frame which has 4 times more resolution, you can get better quality. But often there is a limit, and if you have much less than 4 times the data, you may likely get less than 4 times the detail quality.
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- Steel_GodSpeedGoogle
- DkM
- 09 Jun 2019
mine has a 13 mp, 64bit,5yr old like a Lordseid, so is it superior or something because it's better than Nokia's megapixels supreme.
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- Anonymous
- LQv
- 09 Jun 2019
zodiacfml, 09 Jun 2019Your image did not show the difference a conventional Bayer... moreNot even the full frame lenses can resolve 100% of the resolution, now imagine cheap plastic lenses used by 99,9999999999999999999% of the phones.
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- Anonymous
- LQv
- 09 Jun 2019
Nick Tagataka, 09 Jun 2019One advantage of having a quad bayer filter is that you can... moreYou mean phones can apply fake DR ...
Because they show scenes very different of what cameras do.
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- zodiacfml
- tCQ
- 09 Jun 2019
Your image did not show the difference a conventional Bayer filter vs. the Quad.
Though all smartphone cameras have diffraction, it is irrelevant as there is a bigger and earlier wall for image detail.
This wall is the sensor and lens system. Larger sensors and lenses has more potential for detail. A DSLR with less 24MP or less will resolve better than a 48MP smartphone camera.
In fairness to these new cameras, you have to add that these 48MP cameras are larger than 12MP cameras, therefore, resolve more detail than 12MP despite the 12 Megapixel images/files.
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- Nick Tagataka
- Y}N
- 09 Jun 2019
Samath N8 808 owner, 09 Jun 2019Additional info: The "um" used in the image is "Micrometer"... moreOne advantage of having a quad bayer filter is that you can stack multiple one-shot HDR images to further extend the dynamic range if necessary. Also in low light where light level falls the camera simply stack together 9-10 frames taken in HDR to reduce noise significantly, and in this way you still get live HDR effect which shows you in real time how the photo will look like after you press the shutter button.
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- Anonymous
- NYf
- 09 Jun 2019
Is it possible to get 2.0um normal or 1.0um quad Bayer?
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- Anonymous
- LQv
- 09 Jun 2019
OSasmatteroffact, 09 Jun 2019It doesn't really matter, nowadays people don't care about ... moreThe least important thing to me is cpu.
I'd rather have Flagship body with SD636 than low end body with SD855.
If you put SD845 inside J8 it becomes better than pocophone
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- Anonymous
- pQr
- 09 Jun 2019
Luxor, 09 Jun 2019Ask an average person to read this. They don't understand a... moreI studied physics for several years and although I learned nothing about this topic, I read a little bit about sensor noise, etc and I can tell you that the article is completely wrong.
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- R
- ypY
- 09 Jun 2019
Are quad Bayer sensors physically thinner or easier to yield?
If no ,why aren't there any normal 1/2 or 1/1.7in sensors.
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- OSasmatteroffact
- u7V
- 09 Jun 2019
It doesn't really matter, nowadays people don't care about camera on phone, what's all the matter are processing power they housed, internal storage capacity, RAM size and battery prowess with more accessories in-box
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- Anonymous
- LQv
- 09 Jun 2019
Samath N8 808 owner, 09 Jun 2019Additional info: The "um" used in the image is "Micrometer"... moreThese phones dont do downsample.
Only old Nokia amd Xperia did this ...
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- Anonymous
- LQv
- 09 Jun 2019
AnonD-731363, 09 Jun 2019Well having this in Upcomming Nokia 9 pureview with SD855 a... moreThe phone takes eternity to take photos using lower resolution.
5 sensors of 64 will make you wait minutes.
CPU cant handle all that. Cant process all that data.
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- Anonymous
- LQv
- 09 Jun 2019
Quad Bayer is a commercial name for those Exmor sensors.
When you memtion isocell sensors, the correct is to say TetraCell.
Same way none calls the LG oled as super amoled.
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- Nick Tagataka
- Y}N
- 09 Jun 2019
Good writing but I can highlight a few mistakes in this article.
"A Quad Bayer filter is a bit of a misnomer as it’s actually the same as a regular Bayer filter. What really changes is not the filter but the sensor behind it – these new sensors put four pixels behind each color square instead of just one"
No, the structure of the sensor itself is identical, but the way color filters are placed and how signals from the sensor are processed differ from traditional sensors with the regular bayer filter. Let's say you have 2 identically sized 40MP sensors with the same pixel pitch, one with the traditional bayer filter arrangement and the other with the quad bayer. If you remove the filters from those sensors and use the same signal processing algorithms then they will perform in exactly the same way - they both act as a 40MP B&W sensor, no difference whatsoever.
"If one of the four pixels on a Quad Bayer sensor captures noise, however, that’s only 25% of the information lost – a 4x noise reduction that doesn’t diminish the sharpness of the image"
Except those 0.8µm pixels are far less light sensitive and more likely to capture noise than 1.4µm ones found on modern flagship smartphone sensors, so there will be only 30% of improvement in S/N ratio overall, as indicated by the physical difference in sensor size.
"As discussed, Quad Bayer can offer only a limited gain in sharpness (if that), so it’s really no different than doing digital zoom on a 12MP sensors"
I'm seeing the Zenfone 6 and Honor 20 Pro camera samples from this article and on both phones 48MP photos are vastly superior when it comes to capturing details compared to their respective 12MP counterparts. In fact Honor View 20 and Honor 20 Pro have decent 2x digital zoom capability because they crop the multi-framed 48MP image to produce usable 12MP images. So yes, if implemented right it performs exactly in a way it is expected to work.
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- Anonymous
- 0p}
- 09 Jun 2019
just use motorola z2 force on board camera safe memory, and if you need better you can add hasselblad better result
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- Luxor
- IVW
- 09 Jun 2019
Ask an average person to read this. They don't understand a sh*t. Only techies in this site understand. This is why it so easy to fool the customers these days with marketing material that made claim too far for that 48mp cam.