Katie Marsal
Apple has historically downplayed the significance of megapixels in measuring image quality, and the company may stick to that approach once again later this year with another 8-megapixel camera in its next-generation iPhone, according to a new rumor.
Any improvements to the camera of the so-called "iPhone 6s" may come in the form of other, non-megapixel changes, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co. Quoted on monday by the Taipei Times, Pu said he expects the next iPhone to have the same 8-megapixel count as the current iPhone 6.
As with the current iPhone, it's expected that Largan will supply camera lenses for Apple's 2015 iPhone refresh, the analyst said. He downgraded his outlook on Largan stock.
Rather than focusing on megapixels, Pu said that he expects high-end smartphone cameras, like those in Apple's iPhone, to focus on features such as optical image stabilization and faster autofocus. That's expected to benefit module makers more than lens makers, he said.
There have been rumors that Apple could introduce a significant jump in camera quality with this year's iPhone refresh with a new two-lens system. John Gruber claimed last November that the new system would somehow offer "DSLR quality imagery."
Claims of a dual-lens camera system were again reiterated last month in a report that claimed Apple would include optical zoom capabilities for the first time in an iPhone. The new camera module was also rumored to improve low-light performance by allowing more light to reach the sensor.
Monday's report, however, made no mention of the rumored dual-lens system.
In recent years, Apple has debuted its new iPhone models in the fall. If the company sticks to its current release schedule, the so-called "iPhone 6s" would be introduced and go on sale in September.
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86 Comments
But what if your self-esteem is tied to megapixel count?
But what if your self-esteem is tied to megapixel count?
That's why Apple isn't going past 8MP. If they beat every phone in specs as well as quality, SOC performance, and profitability, you'd just end up with a wave of crying Droidsters leading an assault on One Infinite Loop.
If my family name was Pu, I'd name my daughter Winnie.
While it's true that megapixels is not the only indicator of quality and that in small sensors, more megapixels can actually do harm because they heat up and cause noise, especially at high ISOs, to claim as Gruber apparently did, that a cell phone camera can offer DSLR quality when it has such a small sensor and a tiny lens is completely absurd. All it demonstrates is that Gruber knows nothing about the physics of digital photography. Having said that, there is plenty of room for improvement in terms of focusing speed, ability to change the shooting speed to capture action, tracking, color accuracy, white balance, etc. I noticed recently when shooting some showrooms for a bathroom renovation that even with post-processing white balance correction, it was impossible to get the color of tiles correct. They looked different in every shot. And there should be simple controls to adjust exposure within the Camera application similar to the touch focus control. I realize that Photos is coming soon, but I think Apple has far to go in terms of UI to manage photos. It's currently a freaking mess. Camera Roll and Photo Stream never match, most users don't know the difference and after having to restore photos from a backup folder on my Mac, I now can't add or delete photos from those "Albums" on the phone. It needs to work well for users who don't want to pay for iCloud.
Given the size and quality of the lens, I think 8 MP is already too high.