Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
I remember when my office had a 10-Megabytes drive (Mega, with an M). It was (give or take) the size and weight of a car tire. A few weeks ago, I got the T7 SSD from Samsung. It is two Terabytes big and the size of a credit card. I feel old.
Not only does this drive boasts an impressive 2TB storage, but it also claims to run at read speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and writes at speeds up to 1,000 MB/s. This is quite impressive, so, of course, we had to put it to the test.
Samsung is reportedly ramping up its image sensor production capabilities in a big way, although it’s doing it at the expense of RAM production – again. The process began in 2018 when Samsung converted its DRAM-producing Line 11 plant to make image sensors instead. At that time, they also announced their intention to convert Line 13 to do the same.
The conversion of Line 13 was expected towards the end of 2018, but it seems to have not happened yet. Business Korea reports that the plan is now going ahead, though, at a cost of 1 trillion Korean won (₩) or around US$815 million. Which, apparently, is actually cheaper than building a whole new factory.
The new Samsung Galaxy S20 comes with great camera capabilities. However, what doesn’t seem to be so great is the build of the glass that covers it. Over the past two months, a number of users have complained that the camera glass is too brittle and shatters for no apparent reason.
DxOMark recently tested the cameras in the new Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. Overall it did quite well, scoring 122, although they uncovered some fatal flaws that Samsung likely won’t be able to fix with mere software updates. They say it has the worst low-light autofocus performance of its competitors and the “100x Space Zoom” ability shows poor performance and detail.
If you needed more proof that the world was going nuts, it seems that Samsung is working on 600-megapixel sensors. In an editorial post on the Samsung website, Yongin Park, Head of Sensor Business Team stated they’re prepared to “ride the next wave” of tech innovation, and is determined to produce sensors with higher resolution than the human eye.
In just the past couple of years, we’ve already seen smartphone sensors make what seemed at the time to be a ridiculous leap to 64-megapixels, followed up very quickly by 108-megapixels, and a 150-megapixel 1″ Samsung sensor was rumoured to be in the works just last month. 600-megapixels is a bit of a step up, but Samsung seems keen to get there.
So, I just read a post over on Digital Camera World stating that Samsung is reintroducing their NX mirrorless camera series. For those that hadn’t seen them, it was an Android-powered interchangeable lens mirrorless camera system that actually looked pretty good. In fact, it was probably a little ahead of its time back when they were still releasing them. Then, pretty much overnight Samsung pulled them.
Rumours of their resurrection pop up every now and again, but they invariably turn out to be false. DCW, however, seems to be reporting this latest story with some confidence, citing “reports” (that they don’t link to) claiming it will use the 108-megapixel sensor from the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Could it be happening, or is it all just an April Fool’s Joke?
If we needed any more evidence that the megapixel wars had shifted from DSLRs and mirrorless cameras to phones, then this is it. According to GizChina, Samsung is developing a 150-megapixel 1″ sensor for smartphones. Yes, a sensor similar in size to that found in cameras like the Sony RX100 series is going into a smartphone. Specifically, a Xiaomi smartphone and it’ll happen before the end of this year.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is an impressive smartphone, with an impressive $1,399 price tag to match. It has an interesting camera assembly on the rear, with three cameras at 12, 48 and 108-megapixels, as well as a Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor for depth-sensing.
iFixit have managed to get their hands on one and as they often do, they decided to tear it open to see how it all comes together inside. As one would expect from a Samsung device, it’s not the easiest to get into. iFixit mentions using some pretty hefty tools to crack it open, making some comparisons to Samsung’s Note 10 Plus 5G in terms of internal similarity.
Three weeks ago, we told you about the Samsung Galaxy S20 launch. Not all is bright in S20land though. Over those three weeks, quite a few users have been reporting on issues with the S20’s camera. The issues seem to mostly affect the high-end model, the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
The S20 Ultra boasts a 108-Megapixel sensor on the main camera, and a 48-Megapixels sensor on the 100x zoom camera. This phone, and the tech inside it, reecived some great hype. On paper, they are indeed extremely impressive, but twitter seems to be disappointed with the real-life results.
Well, they’re official Samsung’s announced its array of new smartphones which includes the Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus and S20 Ultra – the latter of which sporting a 48-megapixel 100x zoom camera and a 108-megapixel main camera. Also announced is the new Z Flip phone, Samsung’s second attempt at a phone with a folding screen.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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