Flashback: the second megapixel race

02 October 2022
We thought those days were behind us - the aren't. Smartphone makers are once again in a heated competition to put out the phone with the highest resolution camera.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • iF4
  • 04 Oct 2022

YUKI93, 04 Oct 2022I still remembered that 4MP camera from the One M8. It does... moreONe M8, the worst phone purchase I ever made. Still regret not returning it to the store. Paid a ton of money for it, got very little in return. :(

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • pLi
    • 04 Oct 2022

    So matter the hardware, even if they're given the best lens and sensor, if they carry on with this oversharpening, edge-enhancement, too much noise reduction and other general overprocessing then it's all in vain. If they don't give users to control at least some parameters to control post-processing then what's the point of such sensor and lens?

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • pLi
      • 04 Oct 2022

      Rosso, 03 Oct 2022Why doesn't some company make a massive 1 inch sensor ... moreThere already is 12s ultra. It's got 1 inch, 50mp sensor. Unfortunately it's quad bayer though.
      So they can definitely make it. But I assume that although a standard, bayer, RGB sensor of same size and resolution is much better, it may cost bit more to manufacture. On top of that, it will also be more expensive to implement, such as a dedicated chip needed to do real time image processing since 50mp RAW image is too large to process quickly.
      But it's not overly expensive, and a few OEMs already use dedicated image chip. But they're too busy with marking and maximizing profit and not even dropping a penny to take such step forward.

        Rosso, 03 Oct 2022Why doesn't some company make a massive 1 inch sensor ... moreJust look at the Nokia 808 PureView. While the 1/1.2" sensor is unbeatable at that time, it does come at the price of a thick camera bump. As one of the anons posted in earlier comments, it has a dedicated custom ISP for RAW downscaling. Also, there was no such thing as OIS back then, so Nokia gave a built-in ND filter to compensate for the lack of a longer shutter speed. Put simply, it cost a lot of money to develop bespoke camera hardware for a tiny smartphone space.

          UnholyGod, 03 Oct 2022I remember HTC were one of the first brands to attempt to e... moreI still remembered that 4MP camera from the One M8. It does have a huge native pixel size that does wonders in low light conditions, but that's about it.

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            • Bob
            • x3@
            • 04 Oct 2022

            Well for common people whom point to shoot, it doesn't matter how many pixel but a decent one shall suffice, mostly the pictures will be stored in your phone for view. LOL.unless your a professional users that ultimately need that photo to print or display at home or a gallery, a dslr camera should be in your possession unless you need a mobile camera, that where a phone camera comes in to cover. My 64mp Mi 11 Lite 5G suffice for my camera needs at the moment imo.

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              • S Yu
              • bJv
              • 04 Oct 2022

              UnholyGod, 03 Oct 2022I remember HTC were one of the first brands to attempt to e... moreIt wasn't very successful in the first place, it's not that they won the performance but lost the marketing, they were ahead in neither.

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                • S Yu
                • bJv
                • 04 Oct 2022

                Anonymous, 03 Oct 2022Why create a problem and then make a clumsy solution at bes... moreAt least it doesn't "exacerbate" the diffraction given a certain lens. As for "can't reproduce the lost, original data", well what it's doing is that it does a best guess of what can't be captured in the first place due to the restraints of physics. If you just look at the diffraction limit itself, then the resolving power of smartphones has basically come to a limit, since the lens size is severely limited and so the entrance pupil. But deep learning will take things beyond that, the issue is that the hardware is there(at least the number of data points) but not the software.

                  • W
                  • Wim
                  • fjU
                  • 04 Oct 2022

                  "Bigger pixel" is a misnomer
                  But I agree with the sentiment of it all
                  Just give credit where it's due:Sony.

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                    • Wereweeb
                    • 8UH
                    • 04 Oct 2022

                    Anonymous, 03 Oct 2022Why create a problem and then make a clumsy solution at bes... moreThis.

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                      • Wereweeb
                      • 8UH
                      • 04 Oct 2022

                      Rosso, 03 Oct 2022Why doesn't some company make a massive 1 inch sensor ... morePrice and the size of the camera bump that would be required.

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                        • ME
                        • ncr
                        • 03 Oct 2022

                        The 2mp of Sony Ericsson K750/W800i were very good for their time (2005).

                          I remember HTC were one of the first brands to attempt to exit the first megapixel race but the did it too soon and essentially killed the brand

                            Rosso, 03 Oct 2022Why doesn't some company make a massive 1 inch sensor ... moreit could be the price

                              CargoJoe, 02 Oct 2022I don't mind the megapixel war. Sure it's redunda... morethey all look terrible except the nokia pureview

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                                • Rosso
                                • 3LF
                                • 03 Oct 2022

                                Why doesn't some company make a massive 1 inch sensor with big resolution? Combine best of both worlds.

                                Is the price the issue or technology?

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • K1L
                                  • 03 Oct 2022

                                  Anonymous, 03 Oct 2022Well said. Mi note 10/pro was a great device for photograph... moreI just realized this, the megapixel race indirectly cause the removal of telephoto lens in midrange phone. The OEM prefer to put large 64MP, 108MP camera for marketing and crippled the 3rd lens with trashy 2mp depth/macro lens to cut cost.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • ptP
                                    • 03 Oct 2022

                                    you have to suffer, 03 Oct 2022as people said: "more megapixels = better image"🤪🤪🤪Remember when the same was true for display resolution, and CPU core count? Really glad we are over this today. But it‘s still the case with RAM, some mid range phones prefer to have 8 or 12 GB RAM instead of 6GB and a better SoC than Snapdragon 695

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • pLi
                                      • 03 Oct 2022

                                      Anonymous, 03 Oct 2022Xiaomi in 2019: Midrange phone get 2 telephoto lens! Xiaom... moreWell said. Mi note 10/pro was a great device for photography but today only let down by slow chip. If they re-released it with 778g that would be great.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • pLi
                                        • 03 Oct 2022

                                        blue, 03 Oct 2022And yet the result is all the same. Today maybe even much better.Not the same, major difference between the two, the bayer layout is better. The latter has low colour resolution and no benefit of oversampling

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