Is smartphone camera race going out of hand ?

[GC2:CS]

How much do you need from your smartphone ?
I mean it seriously. How much of the features your new smartphone has do you appreciate and actually see in your photos. "Oh yeah my old phone would make it so grainy etc."
I ask because back in the day as any geek would be all happy and all ten years ago if you got a few percent bigger sensor make the capture lag shorter. Now we have multiple cameras which are there just for marketing reasons unless it is a high end device. And most of the progress is done in software - beter hdr, object stacking noise reduction higher troughput ISP... But the file sizes stay the same. We already have large sensors huge stabilizing arrays very high resolution and pixel binning in hardware for some time. A large part of the phone footprint is dedicated to cameras eating space for other components and making some ugly humps on the back side.

And this year Apple is going to make 8K "great". I see this as quite a example of how far we went if a consumer "luxury" company is going to invest so much to this (accorfding rumors though). I think 48MP might severly hurt some sensor aspects - effective resolution will not get much higher yet you cram in more separation that reduces sensitivity. You need longer readout times and a massive ISP to churm it up. The reason for quadrupling the pixels is supposedly to enable 8K video recording in my view one of the most useless inventions in today world. I do not have a degree in optics but Considering how big a typical 8K camera is, i do not think there is much benefit in going so high in smartphone dimensions. On iPhone 11 gen devices there is not much difference between 2K and 4K video settings in terms of sharpness. You do get more noise though.

And regarding the leaked specs they are very impressive, yet I consider them as completelly useless if you end up taking 1,5 MB hevc pics with the thing. The sensors supports 12 bit readout fullress at 90 fps. and 8K dolby vision 11b at 24 fps.

What kind of result do you expect from such a hardware ? Also investment into ISP hardware must be massive waranting chipset diversification.
Another problem with pushing big sensors and apertures is growing fow and worse ability to focus on close subjects. Other cameras do not get such treatment. Modern Pro iPhone is a prime example with the main camrea sensor being aslmost 4x the size of UW teplephoto and front camre which are all the same size.

For me the sweetspot in terms of image procesing was iPhone 8 with the first gen smart HDR and in terms of hardware the 11 Pro with set of cameras which cover a nice zoom range and have very consistent hardware features.

Would you forfeit the camrea hardware on your main-hander for other features or lower price ? Do you think camera race will fizzle out just as thinness race ?

(I am not native to english language so any tips are helpful)

 

[Commodus]

How much do you need from your smartphone ?
I mean it seriously. How much of the features your new smartphone has do you appreciate and actually see in your photos. "Oh yeah my old phone would make it so grainy etc."
I ask because back in the day as any geek would be all happy and all ten years ago if you got a few percent bigger sensor make the capture lag shorter. Now we have multiple cameras which are there just for marketing reasons unless it is a high end device. And most of the progress is done in software - beter hdr, object stacking noise reduction higher troughput ISP... But the file sizes stay the same. We already have large sensors huge stabilizing arrays very high resolution and pixel binning in hardware for some time. A large part of the phone footprint is dedicated to cameras eating space for other components and making some ugly humps on the back side.

And this year Apple is going to make 8K "great". I see this as quite a example of how far we went if a consumer "luxury" company is going to invest so much to this (accorfding rumors though). I think 48MP might severly hurt some sensor aspects - effective resolution will not get much higher yet you cram in more separation that reduces sensitivity. You need longer readout times and a massive ISP to churm it up. The reason for quadrupling the pixels is supposedly to enable 8K video recording in my view one of the most useless inventions in today world. I do not have a degree in optics but Considering how big a typical 8K camera is, i do not think there is much benefit in going so high in smartphone dimensions. On iPhone 11 gen devices there is not much difference between 2K and 4K video settings in terms of sharpness. You do get more noise though.

And regarding the leaked specs they are very impressive, yet I consider them as completelly useless if you end up taking 1,5 MB hevc pics with the thing. The sensors supports 12 bit readout fullress at 90 fps. and 8K dolby vision 11b at 24 fps.

What kind of result do you expect from such a hardware ? Also investment into ISP hardware must be massive waranting chipset diversification.
Another problem with pushing big sensors and apertures is growing fow and worse ability to focus on close subjects. Other cameras do not get such treatment. Modern Pro iPhone is a prime example with the main camrea sensor being aslmost 4x the size of UW teplephoto and front camre which are all the same size.

For me the sweetspot in terms of image procesing was iPhone 8 with the first gen smart HDR and in terms of hardware the 11 Pro with set of cameras which cover a nice zoom range and have very consistent hardware features.

Would you forfeit the camrea hardware on your main-hander for other features or lower price ? Do you think camera race will fizzle out just as thinness race ?

(I am not native to english language so any tips are helpful)

The camera race does get a bit ridiculous, and I'd say the biggest problem is the tendency to include an abundance of poor-quality sensors on budget phones (the classic is the near-useless 2MP macro) simply to say they have three cameras.

I don't think Apple is entering 48MP lightly (assuming the leaks are accurate, of course). The sensor is supposedly larger, and Apple already has a massive amount of processing power at its disposal — if Samsung can offer a solid 108MP camera, Apple can certainly do 48MP. It will probably pixel-bin photos as it is.

And while I'd say 8K is currently a novelty and will still be a rarity for a while, keep in mind Apple's positioning for the iPhone Pro family. The higher resolution wouldn't be there for everyday users at this stage; it'll be intended for filmmakers and anyone else who's serious about video. The biggest challenge will simply be offloading all that footage, since I can't imagine trying to do that over Lightning or WiFi.

And I think companies like Apple, Google and Samsung already have solutions for those who don't need a ton of camera tech. They're not-quite-top-end phones like the regular iPhone 13, Pixel 6 and Galaxy S22. They take great photos in everyday situations and generally perform as well as their higher-end counterparts, but they aren't chasing after photographic glory.

 

[Trader05]

I would agree with the OP with the iPhone 8 processing. It wasnt overkill and trying to be too "smart". I had an iPhone 8 as a loaner phone and was impressed with the simple shots with detail and coloring, although low light photos were not so good. The iPhone 11 Pro, took great photos, optics were great but imo had Apple's classic warm processing which im not a fan of. I leaned towards Pixels because of the post processing was better in my liking, cool vs warm and a tad sharper.

I tried the 13 Pro and ended up returning it. The pictures almost went backwards in certain situations between clarity and being way oversaturated with the stock profile compared to the 11 Pro or even Pixel 3. I opted for the Pixel 6 Pro and im alright with it. Its not leaps and bounds better 3 in regards to the main sensor's photos but it is faster and more responsive. The zoom and wide angle are also a plus.

Overall at this point in time, i think we peaked with smart phone cameras a few years ago and year over year upgrades are very minimal. The "smart" focusing and processing aspect needs to be improved if anything.

 

[nOOky]

It's what people want. They want to document their lives and they want to use their phone to do so. That means taking pictures and video day and night, and being jealous of others with phones that take better pictures of their dinner. It may not be what you want, but you're not the vast majority of users. Phone cameras are being asked to do an awful lot of versatile things if you think about it, they are being asked to replace a DSLR with a bag full of lenses that fits in a pocket.

What else is there to drive the purchase of new phones? Every advertisement touts the camera, not the amount of storage or processor speed. Perhaps more durability as people still keep dropping their phones and cracking screens.

 

[dainthomas]

What else is there to drive the purchase of new phones? Every advertisement touts the camera, not the amount of storage or processor speed. Perhaps more durability as people still keep dropping their phones and cracking screens.

My Note 10+ runs every game and app I use flawlessly. Honestly the last couple device upgrades for me have been solely based on when the device no longer gets OS/regular security updates.

The camera is probably the best way to justify an upgrade for the average user. Only people on forums like this know or even care what chipset or how much memory their phone has.