The smartphone camera has quickly replaced the point-and-shoot camera of yesterday in just a matter of years. Most people would rather use a smartphone camera because it is both a camera and a pocket PC. The smartphone camera is also producing better images than ever with more megapixels than ever.
Now, Samsung has partnered with Xiaomi to get a little crazy with the megapixel count. Samsung has announced a new 108 megapixel ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor. The company says this is the first mobile image sensor to go beyond 100 million pixels. This megapixel count will result in a resolution equivalent to that of a high-end DSLR camera.
With over 100 million effective pixels enabling extremely sharp photographs rich in detail, the ISOCELL Bright HMX also produces exceptional photos even in extreme lighting conditions. Being the first mobile image sensor to adopt a large 1/1.33-inch size, the HMX can absorb more light in low-lit settings than smaller sensors and its pixel-merging Tetracell technology allows the sensor to imitate big-pixel sensors, producing brighter 27Mp images.
In bright environments, the Smart-ISO, a mechanism that intelligently selects the level of amplifier gains according to the illumination of the environment for optimal light-to-electric signal conversion, switches to a low ISO to improve pixel saturation and produce vivid photographs. The mechanism uses a high ISO in darker settings that helps reduce noise, resulting in clearer pictures. For advanced filming, the HMX supports video recording without losses in field-of-view at resolutions up to 6K (6016 x 3384) 30-frames-per-second (fps).
“For ISOCELL Bright HMX, Xiaomi and Samsung have worked closely together from the early conceptual stage to production that has resulted in a groundbreaking 108Mp image sensor. We are very pleased that picture resolutions previously available only in a few top-tier DSLR cameras can now be designed into smartphones,” said Lin Bin, co-founder and president of Xiaomi. “As we continue our partnership, we anticipate bringing not only new mobile camera experiences but also a platform through which our users can create unique content.”
“Samsung is continuously pushing for innovations in pixel and logic technologies to engineer our ISOCELL image sensors to capture the world as close to how our eyes perceive them,” said Yongin Park, executive vice president of sensor business at Samsung Electronics. “Through close collaboration with Xiaomi, ISOCELL Bright HMX is the first mobile image sensor to pack over 100 million pixels and delivers unparalleled color reproduction and stunning detail with advanced Tetracell and ISOCELL Plus technology.”
Samsung
Samsung will begin mass production of the new smartphone camera sensor later this month. It will likely show up in the future on a Xiaomi smartphone as Chinese smartphone makers like these types of features. It is unclear if Samsung will incorporate it into their flagship phones. It will be interesting to see what smartphone cameras can do with this new sensor.
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Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
