1 inch sensor phone camera

<p>AFAIK it doesn't exist yet. Anyone close to building one? Is there any physical, technological problem to it, or is it a (lack of) demand issue? </p>

<p> </p>

<p>And would you buy one?</p>

The lens will be the limiting factor. In smartphone terms it will be huge, phone will not be pocketable anymore. Or make

the lens interchangeable and store it away from the phone.

<p>A big sensors will need a big lens which will become a packaging problem as manufacturers want phones to be as thin as possible.</p>

<p>Would I buy one if it existed? Probably not, unless it can <em>substantially</em> outdo my 16 year-old 3MP Sony - <a href="/photo/2108229">http://www.photo.net/photo/2108229</a> </p>

 

<p>Would the lens have to be that big if it's a fixed 28, or 35 equivalent, say, f2.5?</p>

 

<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_808_PureView">Nokia 808 PureView</a> from a few years back had a 1/1.2" sensor which is almost the size of a 1" sensor, but the lens had to be seriously compromised due to packaging.</p>

<p>I haven't been following the progress of these things but it seems that smartphone cameras have pretty much settled down and people are electing to use aftermarket conversion lenses on small sensors.</p>

<p>Here's a Flickr set of sample pictures from the Nokia: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rafeblandford/sets/72157629896009348/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/rafeblandford/sets/72157629896009348/</a></p>

 

<p>Thanks, michael. I guess I'll stick with my compacts for now. Conversion lenses change the angle of view, but I want a bit more low light shooting. I mean like in around evenings. I recall the 808, but didn't like the OS. </p>

<p>I know what you men, Leslie.</p>

<p>Maybe the search for that elusive perfect camera is one of the reasons why many of us accumulate so many cameras.</p>

<p>I wouldn't mind a thicker smartphone in order to get a better camera, but unfortunately that's not the direction the industry is going, and evidently not what users prefer. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>Jos has it right. Without a huge jump in lens miniaturisation the size of a lens with an image circle big enough for a 1 inch sensor would make the whole thing really bulky. Best bet might be to get a compact 1 inch sensor camera a glue a phone to it.</p>

<p>Indeed Nokia came close. After the 808 PureView, Nokia made a very similar camera in the Lumia 1020 - still one of the best smartphone cameras out there, after years. But bulky large, and not particularly cheap. I have a later Lumia, the 930, which also has a larger-than-usual sensor, and uses the same idea of downsampling high resolution images to reduce noise (as the 808 and 1020 did) The JPEG are often amazingly good, also in low light. It has replaced my compact, but that compact is a very entry-level model. I doubt it would beat a "premium compact", but that is (in my eyes) already a different market, different pricepoint and often a different (more dedicated) usage.<br>

As Michael said, the development of smartphone cameras seems to have calmed down, probably partially because the market isn't crying for more, partially because physics start to get in the way. So I don't expect a much larger sensored smartphone soon, as it will make a frankenstein of a phone and camera. But I've been wrong plenty times, so there sure is hope.</p>

<p>What are the advantages of large sensor? I can only think of 2.<br>

1. Large sensor would have less noise for the same number of pixels vs the smaller one. As improvement in sensor I feel the noise level is OK for current cell phones and better in the future so there is no real need for this.<br>

2. Large sensor would have less DOF. For most of the pictures I take with the cell phone the more DOF the better because most of those are of the documenting type like taking pictures of something so I can show to other what it looks like. Copy information of something.<br>

So NO large sensor is the least needed feature on the cell phone camera. More important features are, variable aperture, full manual controls, optical zoom, even sync an external flash.</p>

It would be huge, for a phone. Just use a camera.

Youre not stuck with compacts. The upcoming Hasselblad True

Zoom attachment is pretty cool

https://m.dpreview.com/news/2224329976/hasselblad-true-

zoom-moto-mod-hands-on-preview

<p>If the modular phone concept ever takes off (less likely now that Google has dropped the idea), then I guess a large sensor camera plugin would be an obvious component: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_smartphone</p>

<p>One inch sensors are not very large in cameras, but in a cell phone? Why not put a cell phone in a camera (and walk around with it to your ear)?</p>

<p>Why not put a cell phone in a camera (and walk around with it to your ear)?<br>

<br>

Obviously, you can't see with your ear. And phones are much longer and wider than my compacts cameras, but the cameras are only thicker...<br>

</p>

<p>You might get a little bigger than current phone cameras, with a little lump in the phone around the lens. One inch seems a little too big, though. </p>

<p>Maybe with a tiny bellows, so it could extend for picture taking, like cameras 100 years ago.</p>