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Samsung’s ISOCELL Plus sensor tech promises better color, sharpness and ISO performance

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Samsung’s Galaxy S9 family of phones have been rather popular since their release, particularly with regard to their cameras. But despite being near the top of their game, they’re not resting and waiting for the competition to catch up. Announced in 2013, Samsung’s mobile sensors today largely use their ISOCELL technology.

Now, thanks to new material developments from Fujifilm, Samsung have been able to improve this technology to offer more sharpness and colour accuracy, while improving low light performance. They say it will also lead to smaller and higher resolution sensors without any loss in performance.

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“Great photos! You must have a great camera!”

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If you take your craft seriously, the odds of having heard these words are quite high. Audiences associate good images with great cameras, and for the longest time, this (almost) accusation has bothered photographers who felt their skills were downplayed. The interesting bit is that we’re walking towards making the “great cameras = great photos” equation true! And they fit in your pocket.

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Qualcomm’s upcoming 700 series chips brings triple cameras to mid-range phones

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Apple isn’t set to release a triple camera phone until late next year when they update their flagship iPhone X model. Android users, however, may start to see it coming much sooner. And not just in flagships, either, but in mid-range devices. According to a leaked spec sheet posted to Suggest Phone for Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 700 series chips shows triple camera support.

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Smartphone Vs Camera – Why Is This Still A Problem?

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It’s 2018 and it blows my mind that we still have to choose between using a smartphone camera and a real camera.

Why hasn’t a single camera manufacturer added mobile data and standard smartphone apps to a real camera?

Why hasn’t a single smartphone manufacturer made a smartphone with a real camera attached to it?

How hard can this possibly be?

In this article, I will outline what I want in a smartphone/camera hybrid and why I think it would be an instant success.

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Why the iPhone has become the best travel camera for me

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Since I discovered photography, I have always had a camera nearby. Even if “the best camera is the one that’s with you”, I often have to think about what camera to carry. I don’t always need a professional body and lens to capture life around me. Ideally, the camera for everyday carry is small, lightweight, yet capable of shooting photos with great image quality.

I don’t claim to be the best iPhoneographer, nor do I want to anger the Android crowd, I’m sure the shooting experience would be similar to the latest flagship Android phone. I just never got to own one, sorry. This is my journey from the first iPhone to the latest iPhone X.

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Huawei P20 Pro teardown shows that all three cameras have optical image stabilisation

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The Huawei P20 Pro, the world’s first smartphone with three rear cameras, has been torn apart by the folks at iFixit to reveal a nice surprise. Above and beyond the published specs, it seems that all three of the phone’s rear cameras feature optical image stabilisation. According to iFixit’s report, only the 8MP telephoto camera in the P20 Pro is supposed to have hardware optical image stabilisation. But they’re not quite convinced.

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Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus camera knocks the Google Pixel 2 off its top spot

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It seems that with every new smartphone release, DxO has to offer up a new standard. It’s not surprising, though, really. Mobile phone camera technology is advancing at a pretty ridiculous pace. So, it makes sense that with each new flagship phone release, things get better and better.

But it’s happening with alarming frequency. Less than 6 months ago, the iPhone 8 Plus achieved the highest DxOMark score ever of 94. Less than two weeks later, the Google Pixel 2 hammered it by 4 points bringing the top score to 98. And now, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus has just pipped it to the post with a 99. DxO’s current highest mobile score ever. Until the next new phone announcement.

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The ShiftCam 2.0 is 12 mobile phone lenses with a single case

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The phone camera has become a ubiquitous part of daily life. There’s no getting away from them anymore, even if we wanted to. Wherever we go or whatever we do, we always have them with us, and we often get the urge to grab a quick photo with them, even if we own bigger and more advanced cameras. And so you want to get the most out of your phone when you have to use it.

The ShiftCam 2.0 wants to help you do exactly that. Based around a custom iPhone case, it houses six built-in lenses that you slide to get the one over your rear camera lens that you want. There’s also a wide-angle adapter for your front camera, and then five interchangeable “Pro” lenses. The ShiftCam 2.0 is currently on Kickstarter and has already more than doubled its target in less than 24 hours.

 

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DxO shows how far phone cameras have come in just six years

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While DxOMark isn’t infallible, it does offer some great insight into overall trends as technology evolves. DxOMark have just posted a great report on how far phone camera technology has come in the last six years since DxOMark started testing them. It’s not surprising that their numbers seem to marry up with real world experience, but it’s interesting to see just how quickly it’s all happened.

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Google finally opens up Visual Core chip for HDR+ to third party apps on the Pixel 2

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Google have now announced the availability of the final Developer Preview of Android 8.1. While the finalised version won’t roll out until December, the new preview features “near-final” system images. The new preview actives the Pixel Visual Core chipset in both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2XL.

Essentially, this is an 8 core system on chip (SOC) which can run three trillion operations per second. Android Central reports that Google’s HDR+ routines will be five times faster using less than a tenth of the energy over using the standard image processor. This means better dynamic range and reduced noise through computational imaging.

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