Shane Cole
Apple may be planning a major upgrade to the rear-facing camera system in its next-generation handset, according to a new rumor out of the Far East.
Mockup of iPhone with 4.94-inch screen, created by Marco Arment.
The so-called iPhone 6 could ship with an improved 10-megapixel sensor and feature interchangeable lenses made of clear resin, a Tuesday report said. The rumor comes from Chinese site IT168 and was first noticed by GforGames.
Little is known about Apple's plans for the future of the iPhone lineup. Most speculation thus far has centered around the device's display, which is expected to get a bump from its current 4-inch diagonal to around 5 inches.
As part of the shakeup, Apple may discontinue the mid-range iPhone 5C. CEO Tim Cook has said that the handset faced weaker-than-expected demand, with consumers opting instead for the flagship iPhone 5S.
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6 Comments
I would certainly hope they don't "bump from its current 4-inch diagonal to around 5 inches". I liked the 3.5" but mandatorily was upgraded to a 4" screen, which I don't like as the phone became larger. If they add an additional model; fine by me. 10MP is also overkill, for me, but a f/1.8 lens is VERY welcome, thank you Apple! Still, after 7 years with a same-width phone I don't expect anything to change. Others would love it though.
They ought to update the sensor every year and the megapixelage every other (or not at all, you know).
I really want to see them miniaturize Lytro’s work. That’s the next revolution in photography. Not interchangeable lenses that go against everything Steve worked for.
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/161889/rumor-iphone-6-may-sport-10mp-f-1-8-camera-with-interchangeable-lenses#post_2467417"]They ought to update the sensor every year and the megapixelage every other (or not at all, you know). I really want to see them miniaturize Lytro’s work. That’s the next revolution in photography. Not interchangeable lenses that go against everything Steve worked for. [/quote] Yeah, I don't think the accessories matter much. If people want to be carrying lenses around, a mobile phone isn't really the best thing to be attaching them to anyway. It's best to improve the capability of the iPhone itself so that everyone benefits. Low light performance is very important so whatever they can do to improve that would be good: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/31/graphene-camera-sensor/ They recently showed the clips shot on the iPhone and you can see all the steadycam rigs such as: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk4XxqHIJzA If they can do some of that internally like optical image stabilisers that are coming in the next LG G Pro phone and used a lot in normal cameras, everyone gets the benefit of it. The idea of always shooting widescreen and upright would help too. They still have to allow for Facetime on the rear camera so during Facetime that's not essential but otherwise, they'd take a widescreen crop of a circular area of the sensor and can stabilise that digitally too. Being able to refocus images and video would be good so that it allows the DSLR-like depth of field, being able to lock the exposure, HDR too beyond auto-HDR where it just merges multiple snaps - maybe another type of sensor that measures the relative radiance of elements in a photo. The camera sensor itself can do this but there may be a simpler kind that is only used for measuring intensity. Perhaps there's a way to then vary sensitivity across the camera sensor based on the first-pass radiance data. If the bottom of a picture is dark with a bright sun up top, increase the sensitivity of the lower part of the sensor while dulling the top so that the capture data gets as much visible as possible with a single photo and then use the radiance data to adjust it in post. Higher megapixel count is great if it means high digital zoom but the picture is very unstable at high zoom levels because small hand movements translate into big picture movements so stabilising the frame is essential. I'd quite like the camera to move to the middle of the phone too. I'm not sure if they can share the same sensor between the front and back camera so that it reduces costs and gives each one the same quality but the corner placement makes it easier for fingers and thumbs to get into shot. There's probably just more room for the sensor over there with the speaker being in the middle but maybe they can feed incoming light to the sensor via a mirror or optical cable. Having a free mirror lets them stabilise that physically.
As part of the shakeup, Apple may discontinue the mid-range iPhone 5C. CEO Tim Cook has said that the handset faced weaker-than-expected demand, with consumers opting instead for the flagship iPhone 5S.
Weaker than expected doesn't equal total failure. They might have expected 10 million units to sell but got only 9 million as of that comment. But only needed 6 million to sell to break even.
That said, yeah they will discount the 5C because it will be replaced with the 6C just as the 5S will be replaced by a 6S even if the 6C is just the 5S in the same kind of body as the 5C and the 5C becomes the 'zero' phone (pretty easy to do actually, they could even do an 8 GB 5S and have just two lineups rather than 3)
I think that Apple needs to stop making the entry level 'last generation' phone with 8GB of memory. That's pretty much unusable unless you want to pay for extra iCloud storage and higher data plans to access it. I think that the minimum size should be 16GB, and it would be great if Apple added a 128GB iPhone to the lineup. So, entry level would be 16GB, and then 32, 64, and 128GB for the three new models. For the same pricing model currently used. Memory prices have come down, so it shouldn't increase the cost if the device. 8GB is so '3GS'...