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Smartphone cameras have long ceased to be something extra. Now it is almost the main component of any mobile means of communication. Remember how you tell your friends about the new phone you bought, and they ask: “how is the camera?”.
This is how the market works – we need cameras, and manufacturers understand this and try to show that they are the best in their products. And now interesting statistics have appeared, how companies are trying to make the camera better and better.
This suggests that the process is not yet complete, and we are moving towards even better cameras. Although not as fast.
Are phone cameras getting better?
Smartphone cameras have come a long way in terms of photography capabilities compared to digital cameras. And another study by Counterpoint Research proved it. The data clearly show that the imaging system continues to evolve rapidly. This applies not only to the cameras themselves and their hardware, but also to software, which, in fact, collects a picture from a set of disparate pixels.
What is more important: camera or software?
By the way, it is the software that should not be underestimated. Many manufacturers use the same sensors and lenses, but photos still vary greatly from brand to brand. All due to the fact that it is the software that transmits what the matrix saw. A direct image from it will be raw and needs to be processed. This is what the software does.
Contrary to popular belief, the camera does not work in isolation from everything else. The software and individual chips on the board are almost more important than the camera module itself.
The results of the study were announced in a special webinar covering various topics such as smartphone camera trends, image comparison, and more. Representatives of Honor, DXOMARK, Qualcomm and other companies were the guests.
The report says that in the top smartphone segment, the number of camera modules is increasing year by year, the focal length of lenses is also growing, and image processing requirements are pushing chipset manufacturers to make their hardware contribution to the quality of finished images.
I already said above that the software does this, but if it runs on a separate chip optimized for image processing, the result will be much better.
As you can see, the number of camera modules first grew, and then began to decline.
How many cameras should a phone have?
Since 2019, the average number of cameras in a smartphone has been less than three. But over time, it began to grow. Manufacturers understand that it is easier to sell their smartphones this way, because often individual modules perform important and sought-after functions.
Of course, if it’s not a 2 megapixel macro module , which is only there to say that the phone has more cameras.
In addition to megapixels and the number of cameras, software in camera systems is becoming increasingly important. And this is already separate from what I said above about the quality of processing. Here we are talking more about additional features that users need.
What features should be in the phone camera
These include features such as multi-frame and multi-camera fusion methods. This is when several shots are combined into one to increase the resolution or expand the color range. And it can also be shooting video simultaneously from different cameras, extensive HDR capabilities and much more.
Qualcomm’s vice president says software and algorithm-based photography means processing power is paramount to smartphone camera performance. Therefore, to solve the problem, various neural modules, machine learning, and the like are used.
Manufacturers stopped chasing the number of modules and began to work on their quality.
Will phone cameras get better?
All these suggests that we will continue to see a clear improvement in the quality of cameras. Although, it seems that manufacturers gradually began to understand that it is not quantity that matters, but quality, and they do not make 4-5 modules, among which only one is good , but 2-3 with really good features.
As usual, you can tell us in the comments or in our Telegram chat what you think about the cameras. Do you need additional modules, or is it better to make them smaller, so that they provide a higher quality of shooting?
