Apple's iPhone 7 to come loaded with depth-sensing camera, supply chain spies claim

Re: It's not all about the pixels...

100% right. MY Galaxy S5 has a 16 megapixel camera. So in bright sunlight the pictures are superb, as many have noted. But otherwise exposure times are pushed to the maximum, so camera shake smears fine detail over many pixels, making the high pixel count quite useless. It's taken a while but smart people have learned to ignore the pixel count and look at the pictures. In bright sunshine I often reach for the phone in preference to my quite good camera, otherwise I put the phone in my pocket and forget it as a picture taking device.

Re: It's not all about the pixels...

The magic in 808/1020 was really sensor size, not massive pixel count - the information that both had bigger then usual mobile-phone sensors was somehow lost in the noise. Actually, 1020 had far smaller sensor than 808 to fit optics into the body and its quality suffered for it, but it still managed to beat everything else into submission, when you had the patience and photographed static scene (it was woefully slow due to wholly inadequate CPU).

That's also why they had to do such an enormous protruding optics - bigger sensor, bigger optics. The pixel count only means that reading and processing requires more energy (power and time).

Re: It's not all about the pixels...

Indeed, I wouldn't call 12Mpixels disappointing… I still use a couple of cameras that tout 5Mpixel resolution. I've also got retardphones with 3Mpixel and 5Mpixel cameras.

The standalone cameras beat the phones hands down because the optics are far better quality, and the image sensor is a lot larger, thus captures more light. I find the cameras much easier to control and hold steady than the phones, so you get a clearer image.

I've also seen a 1Mpixel video camera outperform a 3Mpixel still camera in taking still images. There, it was the image processing of the Bayer filter that gives the image colour that won out. In the still camera, they were relying on what Kodak had developed, whereas with the video camera, they had to develop their own. So some decent R&D, and the little sub-100-person company churned out something better.

Re: It's not all about the pixels...

Indeed. A top of the line (£5,000 just for the body) Canon EOS-1D X, which is aimed at the professional market, has "only" 18MP.

Re: It's not all about the pixels...

Because elReg are biased against fruity products and like to windup people who buy these products.

You only have to read some of the so called journalism to see the trends.

Envy probably ( and as I will no doubt be terminated, well so much for free speech, but a hundred down votes would make a great epitath)

PS and they are very offensive towards the French, which is offensive to me.

Re: Two cams?

Most of us do okay with two eyes…

Re: Handling....

Product Design, like Engineering, is all about choosing which compromises to make. The camera on a phone is often a secondary function, whereas a smooth pocket-friendly shape is a priority for a 'carry all the time' device.

Interestingly, one of the higher-end Nokia phones had a battery case sold as an ergonomic aid to the camera function. http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/mobile/accessory/pd-95g/

Re: Disappointed with the author

"... I never had the impression that Apple would do anything to impress the clueless."

Guessing you missed their Apple Watch product?

Re: Disappointed with the author

When the size of the pixels gets close to the wavelength of light, there's not much further you can go. This is a statistic that is very useful in evaluation how well a camera is likely to perform. It's also the one you rarely see quoted. If you know that the width of the red pixel element is little more than the wavelength of red light, it is easy to understand why noise and resolution are becoming problems.

Re: It will be an innovation if they can get it to work well

Obvious troll is obvious, 0/10. The HTC (depth) camera on the One M8 does exactly what it says on the tin and the 4MP main camera is one of the best that HTC have ever used, especially when it comes to low light situations.