Jeff is exactly right. The "megapixel game" has gone so far these days that you actually want to look for LOWER numbers for improved image quality. (There is a sweet spot where the gain in details from an increase is outweighed by the amount of noise in the too-small sensors; more so for slimmer optics - as seems to be the case here).
That said, the article mentioned that this is a CMOS sensor, not CCD sensor as is used in nearly every other cameraphone. While each cell in a CCD sensor captures only one of three colors (a 2x2 grid will have one red, two greens, and one blue pixel), each "bin" in a CMOS sensors captures all three. There is even some patent filed by Kodak recently (ostensibly for use in some forthcoming MOTO phone) that has a fourth, transparent light sensing per bin, used for normalization. With this in mind, the "sweet spot" is going to be a higher number.
Still, 8MP with a < 8.5mm focal length is bound to produce nothing but smear.
Looks good w.r.t. statistics that the average prosumer looks at, but will hardly be capable of producing good images.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tor Slettnes @ Mar 18th 2008 6:29PM
Jeff is exactly right. The "megapixel game" has gone so far these days that you actually want to look for LOWER numbers for improved image quality. (There is a sweet spot where the gain in details from an increase is outweighed by the amount of noise in the too-small sensors; more so for slimmer optics - as seems to be the case here).
That said, the article mentioned that this is a CMOS sensor, not CCD sensor as is used in nearly every other cameraphone. While each cell in a CCD sensor captures only one of three colors (a 2x2 grid will have one red, two greens, and one blue pixel), each "bin" in a CMOS sensors captures all three. There is even some patent filed by Kodak recently (ostensibly for use in some forthcoming MOTO phone) that has a fourth, transparent light sensing per bin, used for normalization. With this in mind, the "sweet spot" is going to be a higher number.
Still, 8MP with a < 8.5mm focal length is bound to produce nothing but smear.
Looks good w.r.t. statistics that the average prosumer looks at, but will hardly be capable of producing good images.