More banal than this axiom is only the explanation "the iPhone, it turns out, does not have a slot for a memory card." But beginners continue to make mistakes when they "peck" on the number of megapixels in the camera, which means they will have to repeat themselves.
Imagine a window - an ordinary window in a residential building or apartment. The number of megapixels is, roughly speaking, the number of glasses inside the window frame. If we continue to draw parallels with smartphones, in ancient times, glass for windows was the same size and was considered a scarce commodity. Therefore, when the conditional "Tolyan" said that he had 5 glasses (megapixels) in his window unit, everyone understood that Anatoly was a serious and wealthy person. And the characteristics of the window were also immediately clear - good review outside the house, a large area of glazing.
A few years later, windows (megapixels) were no longer in short supply, so their number only needed to be brought to the required level, and then calm down. Just bring it into line with the area (window for ventilation and a loggia, for the sake of strength, require a different number of windows) so that the camera gives out a slightly denser picture than 4K monitors and TVs give out. And finally, to deal with other characteristics - for example, to deal with clouding of glasses and image distortion. Teach cameras how to properly focus and paint the available megapixels with high quality, if you want specifics.
There are more “megapixels” on the right, but they give nothing but “obstacles” with the same “sensor” area
But people are already used to measuring the quality of cameras in megapixels, and sellers gladly indulged this. Therefore, the circus with a huge number of glasses (megapixels) in the same size frame (the size of the camera matrix) continued. As a result, today the pixels in smartphone cameras, although not “filled” with the density of a mosquito net, but the “devitrification” has become too dense, and more than 15 megapixels in smartphones almost always spoil rather than improve photos. This has never happened before, and here again it turned out that it is not the size that matters, but the skill.
At the same time, as you understand, the "evil" is not the megapixels themselves - if tons of megapixels were spread out on a sufficiently large camera, they would benefit the smartphone. When the camera is able to unleash the potential of all the megapixels on board, and not “smear” them in bulk when shooting, the photo can be enlarged, cropped, and it will remain high-quality. That is, no one will understand that this is just a fragment of a larger picture. But now such miracles are found only in the “correct” SLR and mirrorless cameras, in which the matrix alone (a microcircuit with photo sensors, on which a picture arrives through the “glasses” of the camera) is much larger than the smartphone camera assembly.
"Evil" is a tradition of sticking a clip of megapixels into tiny cell phone cameras. This tradition has brought nothing but blurred pictures and an excess of digital noise (“peas” in the frame).
Sony piled on 23 megapixels where competitors put 12-15 megapixels, and paid for this with a decrease in picture clarity. (photo - manilashaker.com)
For reference: in the best camera phones of 2017, the main rear cameras(not to be confused with b / w additional) all as one operate with "pathetic" 12-13 megapixels. In photo resolution, this is approximately 4032x3024 pixels - enough for a Full HD (1920x1080) monitor, and for 4K (3840x2160) too, albeit back to back. Roughly speaking, if the smartphone camera has more than 10 megapixels, their number is no longer important. Other things are important.
How to determine that the camera is of high quality, before looking at the photos and videos from it
Aperture - how wide the smartphone "opened its eyes"
The squirrel feeds on nuts, the deputies feed on the money of the people, and the cameras feed on light. The more light, the better the photo quality and more details. Only sunny weather and studio-style bright lighting lamps for any occasion of life can not be enough. Therefore, for good photos indoors, or outdoors in cloudy weather / at night, cameras are designed in such a way that they produce a lot of light even in adverse conditions.
The easiest way to get more light to hit the camera sensor is to make the hole in the lens larger. The indicator of how wide the “eyes” of the camera are opened is called aperture, aperture, or aperture ratio - this is the same parameter. And the words are different so that the reviewers in the articles can show off incomprehensible terms for as long as possible. Because, if you don’t show off, the aperture can simply be called, excuse me, a “hole”, as is customary among photographers.
Aperture is indicated by a fraction with the letter f, a slash and a number (or with a capital F and no fraction: for example, F2.2). Why
so - a long story, and that's not the point, as Rotaru sings. The bottom line is this: the smaller the number after the letter F and the slash, the better the camera in the smartphone. For example, f / 2.2 in smartphones is good, but f / 1.9 is better! The wider the aperture, the more light enters the matrix and the better the smartphone “sees” (takes better photos and videos) at night. As a bonus, the wide aperture comes with beautiful background blur when you're photographing flowers up close, even if your phone doesn't have a dual camera.
Melania Trump explains what different apertures look like in smartphone cameras
Before buying a smartphone, do not be too lazy to clarify how “seeing” the rear camera is in it. We looked after the Samsung Galaxy J3 2017 - drive in the search "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture", "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture" or "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture" to find out the exact figure. If nothing is known about the aperture in the smartphone that you have looked at for yourself, two options are possible:
- The camera is so bad that the manufacturer decided to keep silent about its characteristics. Approximately the same rudeness marketers are engaged in when, in response to “what processor is in the smartphone?” they answer “quad-core” and evade in every possible way so as not to disclose a specific model.
- The smartphone has just appeared on sale and no characteristics, except for those in the advertising announcement, have yet been “delivered” on it. Wait a couple of weeks - usually during this time the details come out.
What should be the aperture in the camera of a new smartphone?
In 2017-2018 even in a budget model, the rear camera should produce at least f / 2.2. If the number in the denominator of this fraction is greater, get ready for the fact that the camera will see the picture as if in darkened glasses. And in the evening and at night, she will be “blind-sighted” and will be able to see almost nothing even at a distance of several meters from the smartphone. And don’t rely on the “twists” of brightness - in a smartphone with f / 2.4 or f / 2.6, an evening photo with an exposure “stretched” by the program will turn out to be “rough smudge”, while a camera with f / 2.2 or f / 2.0 will take a better photo without tricks.
The wider the aperture, the higher the quality of shooting on a smartphone camera
The coolest smartphones today have cameras with f/1.8, f/1.7 or even f/1.6 apertures. The aperture itself does not guarantee the maximum quality of pictures (no one has canceled the quality of the sensor and “glasses”) - this, I will quote the photographers, is just a “hole” through which the camera looks at the world. But other things being equal, it is better to choose smartphones in which the camera does not “squint”, but receives an image with wide-open “eyes”.
Diagonal of the matrix (sensor): the more - the better
The matrix in a smartphone is not the matrix where people with complex faces in black raincoats dodge bullets. In mobile phones, this word means a photocell ... in other words, a plate onto which a picture flies through the “glasses” of optics. In old cameras, the picture arrived on film and was stored there, and the matrix instead accumulates information about the photograph and sends it to the smartphone's processor. The processor arranges all this into the final photo and stores the files in internal memory, or on microSD.
The only thing you need to know about the matrix is that it should be as large as possible. If the optics is a water hose, and the diaphragm is the neck of the container, then the matrix is the very reservoir for water, which is never enough.
It is customary to measure the dimensions of the matrix in inhuman, from the bell tower of ordinary buyers, vidicon inches. One such inch is equal to 17 mm, but the cameras in smartphones have not yet reached such dimensions, so the matrix diagonal is denoted by a fraction, as in the case of the aperture. The smaller the second digit in the fraction (divisor), the larger the matrix -> the cooler the camera.
Is it clear that nothing is clear? Then just remember these numbers:
A budget smartphone will take good pictures if the matrix size in it is at least 1/3 "with a camera resolution of no higher than 12 megapixels. More megapixels - lower quality in practice. And if there are less than ten megapixels, the photo will be on good large monitors and TVs look loose, simply because they have fewer dots than the height-width of your monitor screen.
In mid-range smartphones, a good matrix size is 1/2.9” or 1/2.8”. Find a larger one (1/2.6” or 1/2.5”, for example) - consider yourself very lucky. In flagship smartphones, a good tone is a matrix of at least 1/2.8”, and preferably 1/2.5”.
Smartphones with large sensors shoot better than models with small photocells
Is it even tougher? It happens - look at 1/2.3” in the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and XZ1. Why, then, these smartphones do not set records for photo quality? Because the "automatic" of the camera is constantly mistaken with the selection of settings for shooting, and the stock of "clarity and vigilance" of the camera is spoiled by the number of megapixels - they piled 19 in these models instead of the standard 12-13 MP for new flagships, and a fly in the ointment crossed out the advantages of a huge matrix.
Are there smartphones in nature with a good camera and less harsh characteristics? Yes - take a look Apple iPhone 7 with its 1/3" at 12 MP. On the Honor 8, which has enough 1/2.9" with the same number of megapixels. Magic? No - just good optics and perfectly "licked" automation, which takes into account the potential of the camera as well as tailored trousers take into account the amount of cellulite on the thighs.
But there is a problem - manufacturers almost never indicate the size of the sensor in the specifications, because these are not megapixels, and you can be embarrassed if the sensor is cheap. And in reviews or descriptions of smartphones in online stores, such camera characteristics are even less common. Even if you have chosen a smartphone with an adequate number of megapixels and a promising aperture value, there is a chance that you will never know the size of the rear sensor. In this case, pay attention to the last characteristic of smartphone cameras, which directly affects the quality.
Few large pixels are better than many small ones.
Imagine a sandwich with red caviar, or take a look at it if you don’t remember well what such delicacies look like. Just as eggs in a sandwich are distributed over a piece of loaf, the area of the camera sensor (camera matrix) in a smartphone is occupied by light-sensitive elements - pixels. These pixels in smartphones, to put it mildly, are not a dozen, or even a dozen. One megapixel is 1 million pixels, in typical cameras of smartphones produced in 2015-2017, there are 12-20 such megapixels.
As we have already figured out, containing an excessive number of "blanks" on the smartphone's matrix is detrimental to pictures. The effectiveness of such a pandemonium comes out like that of specialized detachments of people to replace a light bulb. Therefore, it is better to observe a smaller number of smart pixels in a camera than a large number of stupid ones. The larger each of the pixels in the camera, the less “dirty” the photos turn out, and the video becomes less “jumpy”.
Large pixels in the camera (photo below) make evening and night shots better
An ideal smartphone camera consists of a large "foundation" (matrix / sensor) with large pixels on it. Only now no one is going to make smartphones thicker or allocate half of the case at the back for the camera. Therefore, the "building" will be such that the camera does not stick out of the body and does not take up much space, the megapixels are large, even if there are only 12-13 of them, and the matrix is as large as possible to accommodate them all.
The pixel size in a camera is measured in micrometers and is denoted as micron in Russian or mm in Latin. Before you buy a smartphone, make sure that the pixels in it are large enough - this is an indirect sign that the camera is shooting well. Type in the search, for example, "Xiaomi Mi 5S µm" or "Xiaomi Mi 5S µm" - and enjoy the camera characteristics of the smartphone that you have noticed. Or upset - depends on the numbers that you see as a result.
How big should a pixel be in a good camera phone?
In the “newest” time, it was especially famous for its pixel sizes ... Google Pixel is a smartphone that was released in 2016 and “showed Kuzkin’s mother” to competitors due to the combination of a huge (1 / 2.3”) matrix and very large pixels of the order of 1.55 microns. With such a set, he almost always produced the most detailed photographs, even in cloudy weather or in dark time days.
Why don't manufacturers "cut" the megapixels in the camera to a minimum and place a minimum of pixels on the matrix? There has already been such an experiment - HTC in the flagship One M8 (2014) made the pixels so huge that they fit in the rear camera ... four on a 1/3 ”matrix! Thus, One M8 received pixels as large as 2 microns! As a result, in terms of the quality of images in the dark, the smartphone “broke” almost all competitors. Yes, and photos in a resolution of 2688 × 1520 pixels were enough for Full HD monitors of that time. But the HTC camera did not become an all-round champion, because the Taiwanese were let down by HTC's color accuracy and "stupid" shooting algorithms that did not know how to "correctly prepare" settings for a sensor with unusual potential.
Today, all manufacturers have gone berserk in the race for the largest possible pixels, therefore:
- In good budget camera phones, the pixel size should be 1.22 microns or more.
- In flagships, pixels ranging in size from 1.25 microns to 1.4 or 1.5 microns are considered good form. More is better.
There are few smartphones with a good camera and relatively small pixels, but they exist in nature. This, of course, is the Apple iPhone 7 with its 1.22 microns and OnePlus 5 with 1.12 microns - they “leave” due to very high-quality sensors, very good optics and “smart” automation.
Without these terms, small pixels ruin photo quality in flagship smartphones. For example, in the LG G6, the algorithms create indecency when night shooting, and the sensor, although ennobled with good "glasses", is cheap in itself. AT
as a result, 1.12 microns always spoil night shots, except when you enter the battle with “manual mode” instead of stupid automation and correct its flaws yourself. The same picture prevails when shooting with the Sony Xperia XZ Premium or XZ1. And in the masterpiece, "on paper", Xiaomi camera The lack of optical stabilization and the same “crooked hands” of algorithm developers prevent the Mi 5S from competing with the flagships of the iPhone and Samsung, which is why the smartphone copes well with shooting only during the day, and at night it’s not very impressive.
In order to make it clear how much to weigh in grams, take a look at the characteristics of the cameras in some of the best camera phones of our time.
| Smartphone | The number of megapixels of the "main" rear camera | Matrix Diagonal | Pixel size |
| Google Pixel 2XL | 12.2 MP | 1/2.6" | 1.4 µm |
| Sony Xperia XZ Premium | 19 MP | 1/2.3" | 1.22 µm |
| One Plus 5 | 16 MP | 1/2.8" | 1.12 µm |
| Apple iPhone 7 | 12 MP | 1/3" | 1.22 µm |
| Samsung Galaxy S8 | 12 MP | 1/2.5" | 1.4 µm |
| LG G6 | 13 MP | 1/3" | 1.12 µm |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 8 | 12 MP | 1/2.55" | 1.4 µm |
| Huawei P10 Lite/Honor 8 Lite | 12 MP | 1/2.8" | 1.25 µm |
| Apple iPhone SE | 12 MP | 1/3" | 1.22 µm |
| Xiaomi Mi 5S | 12 MP | 1/2.3" | 1.55 µm |
| Honor 8 | 12 MP | 1/2.9" | 1.25 µm |
| Apple iPhone 6 | 8 MP | 1/3" | 1.5 µm |
| Huawei nova | 12 MP | 1/2.9" | 1.25 µm |
What type of autofocus is the best
Autofocus is when a mobile phone “focuses” on its own while taking photos and videos. It is needed in order not to twist the settings “for every sneeze”, like a gunner in a tank.
In older smartphones and in modern Chinese "state employees", manufacturers use contrast autofocus. This is the most primitive way of focusing, which focuses on how light or dark it is “straight ahead” in front of the camera, like a half-blind person. That is why it takes about a couple of seconds for cheap smartphones to focus, during which it is easy to “miss” a moving object, or not want to shoot what they were going to, because “the train has left”.
Phase autofocus “catches light” over the entire area of the camera sensor, calculates at what angle the rays enter the camera and draws conclusions about what is in front of the smartphone’s nose or a little further. Due to its "intelligence" and calculations, it works very quickly during the day and does not annoy anything at all. It is common in all modern smartphones, except for the very budget ones. The only drawback is the work at night, when the light enters the narrow hole in the aperture of the mobile phone in such small portions that the smartphone “tears the roof” and it constantly fidgets with focus due to a sharp change in information.
Laser autofocus - the most chic! Laser rangefinders have always been used to "throw" a beam over a long distance and calculate the distance for an object. LG in the smartphone G3 (2014) taught such a "scan" to help the camera quickly focus.
Laser autofocus is amazingly fast even indoors or in semi-darkness
Take a look at your wrist watch... well, what am I talking about... okay, turn on the stopwatch on your smartphone and see how fast one second goes by. And now mentally divide it by 3.5 - in 0.276 seconds, the smartphone receives information about the distance to the subject and reports this to the camera. And it does not lose speed either at night or in bad weather. If you plan to shoot photos and videos up close or at a short distance in low light, a smartphone with laser autofocus will help you out a lot.
But keep in mind that mobile phones are not tools from " Star Wars”, so the range of the laser in the camera barely jumps over a couple of meters. Everything that is further, the mobile phone considers with the help of the same phase detection autofocus. In other words, to shoot objects from afar, it is not necessary to look for a smartphone with “laser guidance” in the camera - you will not get any use from such a function in general terms for photos and videos.
Optical stabilization. Why is it needed and how does it work
Have you ever driven a car with a leaf spring suspension? On army UAZ vehicles, for example, or an ambulance with the same design? In addition to the fact that in such cars you can “beat off the fifth point”, they are incredibly shaking - the suspension is as rigid as possible so as not to fall apart on the roads, and therefore it tells passengers everything that it thinks about the road surface, frankly and not a “spring” (because that there is nothing to spring).
Now you know how a smartphone camera without optical stabilization feels when you are trying to take a photo.
The problem with shooting on a smartphone is this:
- The camera needs a lot of light to take good pictures. Not the direct rays of the sun in the "face", but diffused, ubiquitous light around.
- The longer the camera "views" the image during the photo, the more light it snatches = the higher the quality of the picture.
- At the time of shooting and these “peepers” of the camera, the smartphone must be motionless so that the picture is not “smeared”. Leave at least a fraction of a millimeter - the frame will be spoiled.
And human hands are shaking. This is very noticeable if you raise your arms outstretched and try to hold the bar, and less noticeable when you hold a mobile phone in front of you to take a photo or video. The difference is that the bar can “float” in your hands within wide limits - just not to put it against the wall, a neighbor, or drop it on your feet. And the smartphone needs to have time to "grab" the light in order for the photo to come out well, and do it before it deviates by a fraction of a millimeter in your hands.
Therefore, the algorithms try to please the camera and not put forward increased requirements for your hands. That is, they tell the camera, for example, “so, 1/250 of a second you can shoot, this is enough for the photo to be more or less successful, and taking a picture before the camera moves to the side is also enough.” This thing is called endurance.
How optical stabilization works
What's with the optostab? So after all, he is that “shock absorption” with which the camera does not shake, like the body of army trucks, but “floats” within small boundaries. In the case of smartphones, it does not float in water, but is held by magnets and “fidgets” at a short distance from them.
That is, if the smartphone “leaves” a little or trembles during shooting, the camera will shake much weaker. With such insurance, the smartphone will be able to:
- Increase shutter speed (guaranteed time "to see the picture before the photo is ready") for the camera. The camera receives more light, sees more image details = the quality of the photo during the day is even higher.
- Take clear pictures on the move. Not while sprinting off-road, but while walking or out of the window of a shaking bus, for example.
- Compensate for shaky video. Even if you stomp your feet very sharply or sway a little under the weight of the bag in your second hand, this will not be as noticeable on the video as in smartphones without optical stabilizer.
Therefore, the optostab (OIS, as it is called in English) is an extremely useful thing in a smartphone camera. It’s also possible without it, but it’s sad - the camera must be of high quality “with a margin”, and the automation will have to shorten (degrade) the shutter speed, because there is no insurance against shaking in the smartphone. When shooting a video, you have to “move” the picture on the fly so that the jitter is not visible. This is akin to how in old movies they imitated the speed of a moving car, when it actually stood still. With the difference that in films these scenes were shot in one take, and smartphones have to calculate the shaking and deal with it on the fly.
Smartphones with a good camera, which without stabilization shoots no worse than competitors with stabilization, are vanishingly few - for example, the Apple iPhone 6s, the first generation of Google Pixel, OnePlus 5, Xiaomi Mi 5s and, with some stretch, Honor 8 / Honor 9.
What not to pay attention to
- Flash. Useful only when shooting in pitch darkness, when you need to take a photo at any cost. As a result, you observe the pale faces of people in the frame (and all of them, because the flash is low-power), eyes closed from bright light, or a very strange color of buildings / trees - photographs with a smartphone flash definitely do not carry artistic value. In the role of a flashlight, the LED near the camera is much more useful.
- Number of lenses in the camera. “Before, when I had 5 Mbps Internet, I wrote an essay in a day, and now, when I have 100 Mbps, I write it in 4 seconds.” No, guys, that's not how it works. It doesn’t matter how many lenses a smartphone has, it doesn’t matter who made them (Carl Zeiss, judging by the quality of Nokia’s new cameras, too). Lenses are either high-quality or not, and you can only check this with real photos.
The quality of the "glasses" (lenses) affects the quality of the camera. Quantity is not
- Shooting in RAW. If you do not know what RAW is, I explain:
JPEG is the standard format in which smartphones record photos, this is a "ready-to-use" picture. Like Olivier salad on a festive table - it is possible to disassemble it “into components” in order to remake it into another salad, but it will not work out very well.
RAW is a hefty file on a "flash drive" in which all options for brightness, clarity and color for a photograph are sewn in its pure form, in separate "lines". That is, the photo will not be “covered with small dots” (digital noise) if you decide to make it not as dark as it turned out in JPEG, but a little brighter, as if you had correctly set the brightness at the time of shooting.
In short, RAW allows you to "photoshop" a frame much more conveniently than JPEG. But the catch is that flagship smartphones almost always select the settings correctly, therefore, apart from the memory of the smartphone polluted by “heavy” photos in RAW, there will be little use from “photoshop” files. And in cheap smartphones, the quality of the camera is so bad that you will observe poor quality in JPEG, and an equally bad source in RAW. Don't bother.
- Camera sensor name. Once upon a time, they were super important because they were the “quality mark” of a camera. The sensor model (module) of the camera determines the size of the matrix, the number of megapixels and the pixel size, minor "family signs" of shooting algorithms.
Of the “big three” manufacturers of camera modules for smartphones, Sony produces the highest quality modules (we don’t take into account individual examples, we are talking about the average temperature in a hospital), followed by Samsung (Samsung sensors in Samsung Galaxy smartphones are even better than the coolest Sony sensors, but "on the side" the Koreans sell something awkward), and, finally, closes the list of OmniVision, which releases "consumer goods, but tolerable." Intolerant consumer goods are produced by all the other basement Chinese offices, whose names in the characteristics of smartphones are ashamed to mention even the manufacturers themselves.
8 - execution option. Do you know how it happens in cars? The minimum equipment with a "cloth" on the seats and a "wooden" interior, the maximum - with artificial suede seats and a leather dashboard. For buyers, the difference in this figure means little.
Why, after all this, should we not pay attention to the sensor model? Because things are the same with them as with megapixels - Chinese "alternatively gifted" manufacturers are actively buying expensive Sony sensors, trumpeting at every corner "our smartphone has a super-quality camera!" ... and the camera is disgusting.
Because the “glasses” (lenses) in such mobile phones are of terrible quality and transmit light a little better than plastic bottle from soda. The camera aperture due to the same bastard "glasses" is far from ideal (f / 2.2 or even higher), and no one is engaged in setting up the sensor so that the camera correctly selects colors, works well with the processor and does not disfigure the pictures. Here is a clear example of the fact that the sensor model has little effect on anything:
As you can see, smartphones with the same camera sensor can shoot in completely different ways. So don't think that a cheap Moto G5 Plus with an IMX362 module will shoot as well as the HTC U11 does with its amazingly cool camera.
Even more annoying is the “noodles on the ears” that Xiaomi hangs on the ears of buyers when it says that “the camera in the Mi Max 2 is very similar to the camera in the flagship Mi 6 - they have the same IMX386 sensors! They are the same, only smartphones shoot very differently, the aperture (and therefore the ability to shoot in poor lighting) is different in them, and Mi Max 2 cannot compete with the flagship Mi6.
- An additional camera "helps" to take photos at night of the main one and can shoot b/w photos. The most famous smartphones with such camera implementations are Huawei P9, Honor 8, Honor 9, Huawei P10.
- The secondary camera allows you to "shove the unpushed", that is, it takes pictures with an almost panoramic viewing angle. The only supporter of this type of camera was and remains LG - starting with the LG G5, continuing with the V20, G6, X Cam and now the V30.
- Two cameras are needed for optical zoom (zoom without loss of quality). Most often, this effect is achieved by the simultaneous operation of two cameras at once (Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 8), although there are models that, when zoomed in, simply switch to a separate “long-range” camera - ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom, for example.
How to choose a high-quality selfie camera in a smartphone?
Best of all - based on examples of real photos. And, both during the day and at night. During the day, almost all selfie cameras give out good photos, but only high-quality front cameras are able to shoot something legible in the dark.
It is not necessary to study the vocabulary of photographers and go deep into what this or that characteristic is responsible for - you can simply memorize the numbers “so much is good, but if the number is larger, it’s bad” and pick up a smartphone much faster. For clarification of terms, welcome to the beginning of the article, and here we will try to derive a formula for a high-quality camera in smartphones.
| Megapixels | Not less than 10, not more than 15. Optimal - 12-13 MP |
| Diaphragm(she is aperture, aperture) | for budget smartphones- f/2.2 or f/2.0 for flagships: minimum f/2.0 (in the rarest exceptions - f/2.2) optimal - f/1.9, f/1.8 ideal - f/1.7, f/1.6 |
| Pixel size (µm, µm) | the higher the number, the better for budget smartphones- 1.2 µm and above for flagships: minimum - 1.22 µm (with rare exceptions - 1.1 µm) optimal - 1.4 µm ideal - 1.5 µm and above |
| Sensor size (matrix) | the smaller the number in the divisor of a fraction, the better for budget smartphones - 1/3” for flagships: minimum - 1/3” optimal - 1/2.8” ideal - 1/2.5”, 1/2.3” |
| autofocus | contrast - so-so phase - good phase and laser - excellent |
| Optical stabilization | very useful for shooting on the go and night shooting |
| Dual camera | one good camera is better than two bad ones two average cameras are better than one average camera (brilliant wording!) |
| Sensor (module) manufacturer | not specified = most likely some kind of junk inside OmniVision - so-so Samsung in non-Samsung smartphones - ok Samsung in Samsung smartphones - excellent Sony - good or excellent (depends on the honesty of the manufacturer) |
| Sensor Model | cool module does not guarantee high quality shooting, but in the case of Sony, pay attention to sensors IMX250 and higher, or IMX362 and higher |
I do not want to understand the characteristics! Which smartphone to buy with good cameras?
Manufacturers produce countless smartphones, but among them there are very few models that can take good pictures and shoot videos.
This means that the marketers at Samsung are not eating their bread in vain. What have smartphone manufacturers been up to in recent years? They methodically widened the aperture so that more light hit the phone's microscopic sensor. They came to understand that high resolution (16-21 MP) with small pixels (0.9-1.1 microns) performs worse than average resolution (12-13 MP) with larger pixels (1.25-1.4 microns) - at 12-13 megapixels, detail is preserved, but enlarged pixels collect more light. Also, almost all companies have successfully mastered the optical stabilization system, which, in particular, made it possible to set a longer shutter speed so that the matrix has time to capture more light. That is, companies did everything to ensure that the tiny sensor received as much light as possible.
The leading photo flagships of 2017 are f/1.6 (LG V30, Huawei Mate 10), f/1.7 (Samsung Galaxy S8, HTC U11), f/1.8 (iPhone X, Pixel 2). According to the latest rumors, the Galaxy S9 will have a mechanically adjustable aperture with f / 1.5 and f / 2.4. Despite the assumptions, it will not be possible to set intermediate values, that is, the user will have two modes at his disposal - for the day and for the night. A similar solution is used in the Samsung W2018 clamshell, which is sold exclusively in China. Check out the gif:
The fact that smartphone cameras are evolving is certainly encouraging. And I'm glad that Samsung, whose Galaxy flagships are easily in the Top 3 best smartphones for photography, video shooting, has taken on the role of leader in the direction (or is trying to take). However, the joy of the expected jump in photo quality, it seems to me, is premature. Firstly, between f / 1.5 and the current f / 1.7 for the same Galaxy Note 8, there is not such a big difference, given the size of the camera module. And where are the enthusiastic exclamations for the LG V30 camera with f / 1.6? There are none, because the aperture has not radically changed the quality of the photo in comparison with the same G6 (f / 1.8). Secondly, I see very few scenarios where f/2.4 will outperform f/1.5. Nightclubs, house, macro, night landscapes, portraits, shooting moving objects and dynamic scenes? For all these scenes, f / 1.5 is preferable, that is, the rule “the more light (lower shutter speed, lower ISO) - the better” applies.
If you have an iPhone X on hand, you can do a little test - shoot something indoors (or even outdoors) with different cameras (wide and telephoto), trying to build the same focal length. You'd be surprised how much noisier photos from an f/2.4 camera are compared to f/1.8 even in good light.
Many of you use your smartphone as the main camera. This is not strange, because digital SLR cameras are not cheap, and not very mobile, unlike conventional phones. If you are not professionally engaged in shooting photos and videos, you do not need such a camera at all. And for everyday Instagram photos, the phone will do.
The good news is that cameras in flagship smartphones today are not much inferior in quality to DSLRs, and the trend for dual cameras generally makes it possible to take photos in portrait mode indistinguishable from those taken on a digital camera. Moreover, cameras evolve and get better every year, even in budget smartphones.
Aperture- this is one of the characteristics of the camera in your smartphone, which you may have heard about and saw this parameter in the characteristics of the phone. Usually, it is referred to as f / 2.0, f / 1.8, f / 1.7 and f / 1.6. It is believed that the smaller the second digit in the designation, the better the camera takes pictures, but is it really so? In this article on Galagram, we talk about the aperture in modern smartphones.
What affects the quality of a photo
You may have heard the popular phrase, "The more light a camera gets, the better the photo." And this, to some extent, is true. For example, in digital cameras - the better the sensor and lens, the better you get the final picture (or video). In smartphones, the same principle applies, but there are some differences.
Since the image sensor and lens on your phone take up very little space (unlike a DSLR), the camera receives less light than a regular camera. Some manufacturers are trying to correct this situation by installing a sensor with larger pixels with sizes of 1.15-1.25 microns, which should capture more light.
Wide aperture does not always mean the best image quality
But the sensor is only half the equation for perfect photography. On the second pan of the scales are optics and lenses through which light enters the image sensor. This is where such a concept as aperture comes into play.
What is aperture in a smartphone
And so, what is aperture or aperture in a smartphone? Aperture refers to the size of the hole through which light can enter the camera. This setting is referred to as "f/2.0" (numbers may vary) and is measured by the ratio of the focal length divided by the hole size.
Thus, the smaller f, the larger the hole size and the more light gets through the optics to the image sensor. As you yourself know, a photo taken in good light even with a budget smartphone is bright, saturated, clear and has no noise.
Another good thing about a wide aperture is faster shutter speeds and a sharper and more stable photo, with no stutters or blurry areas. When a camera receives a lot of light, it "thinks" less before taking a picture. Some manufacturers are adding Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) technology to the cameras of today's smartphones, which makes it possible to achieve even better images in medium and low light.
Which aperture is better: f/2.2, f/2.0 or f/1.6
The image sensor in a smartphone is very close to an optical lens system, which is much closer than that of a SLR camera. This leads to the fact that the focal length in the phone is much shorter than that of professional cameras.
Since we know that the ideal photography equation uses focal length divided by aperture size, this helps explain why smartphone cameras have a wider aperture than traditional DSLRs. Despite a wider fixed aperture, your phone's camera isn't always better suited to capturing the maximum amount of light.
The aperture in a smartphone is different from the aperture in a digital camera
Thus, the larger the aperture in the phone, the better. Ideally, the camera should have both a wide aperture and a sensor with large pixels of 1.25-1.55 µm. But here's another problem - in the phone, the aperture has a fixed size and does not change, unlike DLSR cameras, when you twist the lens.
How is the bokeh depth of field effect obtained?
A wider aperture in a digital camera allows you to better emphasize the effect of depth of field (bokeh or background blur). But your smartphone has a fixed aperture and a small sensor that sits close to the optics. Therefore, adding the bokeh effect on the phone is much more difficult, especially when the background is close to the main subject in focus.
By comparison, a smartphone camera with an f/2.2 aperture achieves the same depth of field as a camera with an f/13 or f/14 aperture. In practice, very little blurring is obtained. Modern phones that can take pictures with a blurry background usually use special software algorithms for this, and not the actual operation of the optics.
Optics and lens quality
Another important feature of a smartphone camera is the lens. Yes, we used to call lenses large interchangeable lenses for cameras, but your phone has it too. Let the lens in a smartphone be much smaller than traditional ones, but it also consists of optical lenses. If the lens is dirty or the lenses have poor transparency, the sensor will receive less light in the end.
Lens quality becomes especially important on smartphones with wide apertures like f/1.6. After all, at a wider aperture, it becomes more difficult to focus all the light on the image sensor. This is where the so-called abrasive distortion.
Wide aperture phones are, by definition, less focused on a particular part of the scene than devices with smaller apertures and are therefore more prone to both focus and distortion problems.
Abrasive distortion manifests itself in a variety of effects. These include: spherical aberration (reduced transparency and sharpness), photo blur, field curvature (loss of focus at the edges), distortion (image convexity or concavity), and chromatic aberration (out-of-focus colors and white distortion).
Lenses in smartphones are built from several corrective lens groups that are designed to precisely focus light and reduce these aberrations. Cheaper lenses have fewer lenses and are therefore more prone to problems. Optical materials also play an important role.
The quality of lenses is difficult to judge by their specifications, and many phone manufacturers don't mention it at all. Fortunately, some well-known optical companies are now actively integrating into smartphone cameras, in particular, we are aware of such cases: Leica and Huawei, Carl Zeiss and Nokia HMD Global. LG has also introduced a new 6-element "Crystal Clear Lens" lens to the flagship V30 to handle the camera's wider aperture.
Conclusions: what to look for
We hope that after reading this article you have understood what aperture is. To summarize all of the above, a wide aperture does not always mean best quality pictures. The final image is also affected by the size of the matrix, the amount of light that hits the image sensor, software and, of course, the camera optics in your smartphone. The key to a good camera is simple, these are the following parameters:
- wide aperture
- large pixels and matrix size
- well-coordinated work of software and hardware
- high-quality optical system
Therefore, when you choose a smartphone for yourself, it is better to test its camera manually before buying it to make sure that its real image quality. You should not get hung up only on the f/1.8 and f/1.6 numbers, because a high-quality camera not only has a wide aperture, but all other systems work well as a set.
How to find out the camera's light sensitivity on a smartphone, and what value should you choose in order to enjoy high-quality photos later?
One of the most important points in a smartphone is its camera. Now almost every user has pages in various in social networks, where he periodically uploads photos of himself, travel, food, shopping, pets, etc. Some people even make money by posting pictures on Instagram and other networks. Modern smartphones can replace digital cameras, which sometimes greatly facilitates luggage on trips. But how to choose a device with a good camera?
Thanks to the development of technology, the number of pixels no longer plays such a decisive role as before. If you want to get a high-quality camera, then when choosing a smartphone, you should pay attention to the presence of optical image stabilization, sensor size and pixels. Another important characteristic is the aperture.
What is aperture?
Aperture measures the ability of a camera to capture light. An important detail in the device of the camera is the aperture diaphragm - the hole through which the light rays pass to the sensor. The principle of operation is similar to the structure of our eye, where the pupil and iris control the amount of light reaching the retina. A larger aperture opening allows more light to be collected, which is necessary for high-quality images.
The letter f is used for designation, where the exponent f is equal to focal length divided by the aperture diameter (f/1.7, f/2.2, etc.).
Does more mean better?
Actually it is not. The smaller the number after f, the larger the aperture and the larger the aperture of the lens. This means that the camera is light sensitive and can capture more light. Thus, even in poor lighting conditions, you can take a high-quality and clear photo with a minimum amount of noise.
Perhaps the most attractive option here is last year's flagships Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge with a maximum aperture of f / 1.7. Also noteworthy are the HTC 10, LG V20, LG G5 and LG G6 with f/1.8. Well, most often you can find mobile devices with an aperture of f / 2.0 or f / 2.2.
variable aperture
This is usually a fixed value, but sometimes a variable aperture may be specified. This is typical for devices with a camera that allows the user to apply optical zoom, change the depth of field, or change the shutter speed.
For example, a recently launched dual camera smartphone has a wide aperture mode with a range of f/0.95-f/16. In this mode, you can change the focus on already taken photos and create the effect of a blurred background, like on a SLR camera. With a larger aperture value, the camera will focus on the nearest object, with a smaller one, the background will be sharper.
Another example would be the ASUS ZenFone Zoom. Although the device is equipped with a single camera, it provides support for optical zoom. The aperture can be changed from f/2.7 to f/4.8, where the first value corresponds to the normal state of the camera, and the second value corresponds to the maximum zoom.
Conclusion
Aperture is one of the most important characteristics mobile camera. It is she who is responsible for the ability of the smartphone to take high-quality pictures even in low light conditions. However, it is important to remember that a light-sensitive camera with a large aperture will have a lower f-value.
Modern digital cameras allow you to get enough high-quality images without much effort and knowledge in the field of photography. It is enough to set the auto mode and the pictures will look quite pretty.
However, a much better result can be achieved if you learn how to use all the capabilities of your camera.
Today we will try to figure out what is diaphragm (aperture) what it is for, and what are its main functions.
Translated from Greek, the diaphragm means "partition". Also, the term “aperture” (from the English word “aperture”) is used to refer to this element of the camera.
Aperture is a special device that is built into the camera lens and regulates the diameter of the hole through which light enters the matrix. That is, the smaller the aperture is opened, the less light can enter through the camera lens. The larger the aperture, the more light enters the photosensitive element of the camera.
The Latin letter F is used to designate the aperture. The following standard range of aperture values is generally accepted: f / 1.0; f/1.4; f/2; f/2.8; f/4; f/5.6; f/8; f/11; f/16; f/22; f/32. The aperture value and hole diameter are inversely proportional. That is, the larger the aperture value, the smaller the aperture opening.
Changing the aperture diameter allows you to create real creative works, convey emotions, feelings and moods, highlight objects located in the foreground and blur the background, as well as take photos with a panoramic effect.
The diaphragm has two main functions. This is the management of such indicators as image clarity and depth of field - the depth of field of the depicted space, as well as exposure control.
DOF is perhaps one of the most expressive means used in the art of photography. The smaller the aperture, the less light enters the photosensitive matrix, and the sharpness of the frame increases accordingly. That is, it all depends on the goal pursued by the photographer.
If he seeks to obtain a clear image of objects that are both in the foreground and in the background, it is necessary to set the minimum aperture corresponding to the largest F values \u200b\u200bavailable in the camera (f / 22; f / 32). This will mean that the aperture of the diaphragm has the smallest diameter.
If it is necessary to highlight an object in the foreground and hide individual details of the background, then it is necessary to set the maximum aperture corresponding to the smallest values of F (f / 1.0; f / 1.4). This will mean that the aperture of the diaphragm has the largest diameter, and it can even be fully open.
For example, portrait photography involves using a shallow depth of field so that you can concentrate directly on the subject itself. In this case, the background is somewhat blurry. In this case, you should take pictures in the maximum open aperture mode. This technique can also be used to emphasize the expressiveness and beauty of the front edge of the composition by blurring the back of the frame.
It should be borne in mind that a low depth of field value also affects the image quality of objects located at the edges of the frame. So, for example, when taking group shots at the widest aperture, images of people at the edges will be slightly different from those in the central part of the photo - they will be less sharp and seem somewhat out of focus.
With a high DOF value, objects that are both in the foreground and in the background are equally sharp. Such photographs are taken at the maximum closed aperture. Almost everything in the frame will be in focus. Usually this mode is used when photographing landscapes, architectural ensembles or when taking panoramic shots.
If it is necessary to achieve a combination of a slightly blurred background and the soft outlines of an object located in the foreground, use a medium aperture (f / 5.6).
Thus, the smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field. Knowing this rule, you can photograph the same object in different ways.
Good luck with your pictures!
