Samsung Announces 16MP Sensor For Phones, Tablets

[Guest]

Megapixels (MP) are not everything in image quality, but more resolution is certainly better, at least if you have the necessary storage space.

Samsung Announces 16MP Sensor For Phones, Tablets : Read more

 

[aldaia]

Megapixels is just a marketing hype to sell new gadgets to the ignorant masses. They don't improve image quality, they just improve the bragging rights of the owner.

Without good (which means BIG) optics, more megapixels are useless. My old DSLR is only 6MP but still makes way better pictures than my 10 MP P&S (the last one is however handy for its size). My P&S even with resolution reduced to 5 MP still produces much better quality than any phone or tablet I've seen (even compared to a 12MP phone).

More Megapixels are actually detrimental to picture quality, more megapixels mean smaller pixels, which means more noise. So you get bigger pictures that store the same or even less image quality and waste all the storage capacity storing NOISE. 16 MP make sense in a DSLR where optics is not the bottleneck of the system, and where sensors are much bigger (in area) which means you can have bigger pixels and lower noise. If I could buy a P&S with the same characteristics that the one I have but with a sensor in the range of 3-5 MP and same size, I will, because that means similar resolution (constrained by optics), much less noise (since pixels are bigger) and smaller files, unfortunately the market is nor ready to understand than sometimes less (pixels) means more (image quality)

Worst of all is that 99.9999999 % of the pictures taken by P&S, Phones and Tablets are at most viewed in a screen no bigger than 2 MP (and even smaller than 1 MP).

 

[dthx]

16Mp in a phone. Awesome !!! ... but... wait... that's even more than my Full Frame DSLR with it's 24x36mm sensor??? Tiny pixels means noise, couple that with the crappy optics you have on phone and you get crappy pictures for any scene that is not shot under a bright sunlight.
Those phones will also have 250W speakers and a big "bass boost" sticker on the back.

 

[ben850]

What if you intend on the picture only being about 800x600 in resolution? Wouldn't the large image taken by a 16MP camera still look good when down-sized?

 

[mauller07]

Going to be full of noise with the size of the image sensor.

You can have all the MP in the world but each pixel needs to be a decent size for a good quality photograph.

 

[eddieroolz]

Sony's been there already nearly a year ago. At least Sony's sensor produces good images (the reduced ones are in the Arc, I believe).

 

[alyoshka]

Didn't MS come out with the 1.4Giga pixel stuff just a few days back?
hey ought to have jumped straight to atleast 1 Gigapixel.... Samsung.... that'd be cool.
Yeah, and you ought to have display tech that capable to handle that sort of an image..... plus the processor...

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]__-_-_-__[/nom]meaningless. The quality of a picture is made by the optics, that's why cell phones will never have the quality even of a cheap digital camera, since they need to be small, there's no space for optics. good optics need some space. Having a 8mp or a 16mp sensor is the same unless you are going to print outdoors. This is just marketing XXXXMP!!! -.-[/citation]

however a better sensor can take faster pics/vid. ever see an old cellphone video or low end web cam... the ghosty as hell and the only way for a clear shot is if you stand absolutely still for 1-2 seconds.

i have to say, im all for better sensors because of the secondary benefits to having better ones.

 

[howardp6]

It is the size in conjunction with the number of pixels that deterimes the quality of the picture you can take with a sensor. All you are adding is the size of the picture when it is stored. In addition the quallity of the optics of the camera is also a factor. The processing of the image will also be slowed after all the processors in the cellular telephones are not the fastest and most of them are not multiple cores. The best digital cameras have high quality optics with large lenses, fast processors and large sensors, which woulld not be found in a tablet or cellular telephone that would be portable.

 

[nebun]

give me a 10MP chip with to notch image quality and i will take it over a 16MP with low image quality any day

 

[nebun]

give me a 10MP chip with top notch image quality and i will take it over a 16MP with low image quality any day

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]alyoshka[/nom]Didn't MS come out with the 1.4Giga pixel stuff just a few days back?hey ought to have jumped straight to atleast 1 Gigapixel.... Samsung.... that'd be cool.Yeah, and you ought to have display tech that capable to handle that sort of an image..... plus the processor...[/citation]
The MS camera will be the size of a truck, might take a while for it to be shrunk down enough.
[citation][nom]__-_-_-__[/nom]meaningless. The quality of a picture is made by the optics, that's why cell phones will never have the quality even of a cheap digital camera, since they need to be small, there's no space for optics. good optics need some space. Having a 8mp or a 16mp sensor is the same unless you are going to print outdoors. This is just marketing XXXXMP!!! -.-[/citation]
Agreed that optics are important, but its important to note that you should be comparing this to other cameraphones, not dedicated cameras, for example this 16mp cameraphone is hot on the heels of the iPhone 5 having a whopping 8mp - magical indeed.

 

[CaedenV]

I dont understand why people get into these high MP cameras! Talking with my negibor yesterday and he was drooling over some of the new 14MP snapshot cameras on the market, but he own a 10MP DSLR! He didnt understand how the new little cameras were not better, and I could not convince him either. I even explained that his HDTV (which he loves) is only 2MP, his computer screen is just a little higher than that, and his photo frames are tiny in comparison. The only NEED for these size of files is for professional printing, which hardly anyone does. What matters is optics, capture rate/ghosting, how true the color is, and what the final product is intended for, other than that a 6MP camera would be fine for most people.

 

[tanjo]

Optics compensate for the lack of resolution. If you add lenses to this sensor, the image quality would be insane.

 

[gokanis]

Looks like all the camera freaks are on bashing the sensor. Who's to say it wont make its way into professional devices with good optics? We can only hope, then you will be singing another tune. The fact they are going to put it into the smaller stuff first is to make money off the hype, "hey lookie a 16mp camera on my overpriced tablet and $600 phone!" Anyone that takes pictures with these smaller devices is not going to be concerned with picture quality anyways, it is only one aspect of the device they are buying, heck, even brand loyalty has a bigger impact than a 16mp camera.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]tanjo[/nom]Optics compensate for the lack of resolution. If you add lenses to this sensor, the image quality would be insane.[/citation]
No because the size of the sensor is still to small. A full frame sensor has an area almost 35 times bigger than this one. Even the weakest sensor on a point and shot is almost 10 times bigger than this.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]gokanis[/nom]Looks like all the camera freaks are on bashing the sensor. Who's to say it wont make its way into professional devices with good optics? We can only hope, then you will be singing another tune. The fact they are going to put it into the smaller stuff first is to make money off the hype, "hey lookie a 16mp camera on my overpriced tablet and $600 phone!" Anyone that takes pictures with these smaller devices is not going to be concerned with picture quality anyways, it is only one aspect of the device they are buying, heck, even brand loyalty has a bigger impact than a 16mp camera.[/citation]
It won't make it to professional cameras or even to point and shot cameras as long the sensor is tiny. The type of this sensor is 1/2.3", so it's dimensions are 6.16mm by 4.62mm. Now compare it to a full frame sensor whose dimensions are 36mm by 24mm. This sensor also has the wrong aspect ratio for professional photography.