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New iPhone 4G picks
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You've got a lot of that half right. Image quality does go down if you cram more pixels onto a sensor. Why? Because only so many photos can hit the sensor. So if you have too many the sensor begins to imply colors (noise).
Improving the lens would be the most beneficial, there's only so much they can do with the sensor (which is already great quality).
MMM this mockup is super old, but I still like it. If I remember, this was actually an iPhone nano concept, or were those the really colorful ones? I remember they surfaced at the same time.
But the question is, will the 5MP sensor be larger than the current iPhone camera? I suppose it is my mistake to assume that it would. I am going by my knowledge of DSLR's, where a company introduces a new model with higher pixels on a larger sensor.
well
better Sensor is far more important then 5MP if the sensor sucks it could be 100 mp and it will still suck. A better sensor for low light auto focus etc. with 3mp a 8x10 would be a max print size 5mp maybe 16x20 have you ever printed out a 8x10 from you Iphone. you could crop it some more but not that much. get a higher end camera for better quality pics! and based on the post I see many many people are expecting SLR quality.
better Sensor is far more important then 5MP if the sensor sucks it could be 100 mp and it will still suck. A better sensor for low light auto focus etc. with 3mp a 8x10 would be a max print size 5mp maybe 16x20 have you ever printed out a 8x10 from you Iphone. you could crop it some more but not that much. get a higher end camera for better quality pics! and based on the post I see many many people are expecting SLR quality.
Where to start? Pixel count absolutely affects quality. Increasing the pixel count decreases the amount of light that impinges on each pixel. Less light means less information. Double the pixel count, halve the information per pixel. Digital camera software uses all kinds of tricks to brighten up these images, but all of these tricks have the effect of significantly increasing the noise in an image.
This is not a huge problem for a Digital SLR with a huge lens capable of focusing lots of light on the sensor. In a camera like the iPhone's with a tiny 1/4" lens and a tiny sensor, it is a huge problem. There simply isn't enough light to go around. The result of this is that increasing the pixel count without improving the lens does not improve print quality for larger images or improve the ability to crop. All it does is make those images noisier.
As for your question of why camera makers like Nikon and Cannon keep increasing their pixel counts, I've already answered part of that: they have large, high-quality lenses capable of producing quality high-res images. The other half of the answer is quite simple: they increase their pixel count because people like you demand it. It is the only camera statistic most people understand (or think they understand), and it has been built up as the measure of camera performance. It's like horsepower for automobiles; without knowing things like torque curves, gear ratios, etc. horsepower tells you very little about performance, but everyone thinks they know that higher horsepower is better...
I take it that you missed my last comment. My assumption is that the 5MP sensor, if Apple actually goes with it, will have a larger sensor than the current one. If that is not the case, that is my mistake. That is why I used the analogy with the DSLR brands. As for people like me demanding it, that is not the case. I am still using, and happy with, my 6.3MP Canon DSLR.
Except when a DSLR company releases a new higher megapixel sensor it's the same size... (there's roughly only two DSLR sensor sizes, btw)
And if they increased the sensor size the lens would have to be moved out further from the iPhone making it bigger (something Sir Stevey won't likely allow).
Got it. That being the case of the iPhone 5MP rumor, I agree that Apple should just leave the current camera the way it is. Unfortunately, marketing may disagree. That is the nature of the business.
The unfortunate thing is that they can't simply add a bigger sensor. The maximum physical size of the sensor is restricted by the focal length. The focal length is restricted by the slim design. With the current size of the phone there's no way around it.
3MP please. Although I suspect the marketing department will win this one.
Indeed, I was interrupted responding to your comment and didn't check for follow-ups before posting. If your assumption was that the sensor size would increase 60% to match the increased resolution while maintaining the same pixel density, I can somewhat understand your confusion. But this runs into problems of lens focal length and space (the iPhone is pretty jam-packed as it is). And you still can't get around the problem of the lens size creating a physical upper-limit on light. And on top of that I highly doubt the iPhone's tiny (and, let's face it, cheap) lens is capable of resolving even current pixel densities.
In my opinion, the best thing they could do to improve the quality of the camera would be to invest in a quality lens from a manufacturer like Carl Zeiss. But such things do not come cheaply, and expensive is not Apple's style. To be honest, I believe my five-year-old 3.2 MP Sony point-and-shoot with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens takes better pictures than my sister's brand new 8 MP camera.
Of course they will. Some day MP will go the way of MHz, but I'm afraid that day is still far off.
I agree. Some day we'll be arguing about which sensor is better based solely on the gigapixel count.
not true.
having a zagg invisible shield on the front screen still allows touch functionality
So what?
Does Apple make the iPhone for the case manufacturers, or is it the other way around? You can push it even further: Apple can't implement the mini-displayport, because all display-manufacturers use HDMI or DVI?
And like stated before, you can use an invisible shield (5% of the iPhone users nowadays?), a pouch (10% of the iPhone users nowadays?), or nothing (55% of the iPhone users nowadays?), so even if you look it this way a case is not obligatory for every iPhone.
Back on topic, why do we only have one mockup-pic? I want to see more, even if they are from last years!
Monochrome display? Hate it!
Yeah, Youtube, Maps, games, etc. is impossible on such screen...
It looks awesome though.
where would the 'guts' go??