Smartphone Camera Basics Explained
Smartphones have replaced many gadgets from daily life, one of them is Camera. As a smartphone is easy to carry, many people are now using them as primary shooters.Due to the popularity of cameras in smartphones, Everyone wants to have a better camera in their phone, but most believe camera means only Mega Pixels. Usually people only pay attention to the mega pixels while viewing the camera properties of the smartphone. Mega pixels of a camera are only half story, as you can better understand this by an example, HTC One has only 4MP camera but still it is capturing FHD (1080p) video and snapshots. So, apart from mega pixels, the image quality comes from the combination of few other camera features like sensor size, aperture, ISO etc. Here is the brief description of above features.
Mega pixels?
Mega pixels (MP) are a measurement of the size of captured image by the camera. One mage pixels contains One Million distinct Pixels, which means the image, captured with one mega pixel camera, will be containing one million pixels in it. More pixels in the image means the image will contain more details and you can zoom in without getting a blurry image.It is always better to have a camera with more mega pixels. Because the extra mega pixels means that the captured image will contain more pixels and will be bigger. Bigger image will cover the more details but it does not guarantee that better image quality. E.g. in low light or cloudy evening, an 8 MP camera will capture the image containing 8 million pixels, but the image will contain dark / black shades. So, always watch out for other camera features apart from mega pixels.
Sensor size:
Sensor size matters a lot in the quality of captured image. Bigger sensor means the wider area it can view and superior photos it can shoot. Sensor of the camera is important and most expensive component of the camera. HTC One had used large sensor (Ultra Pixel Technology) in its 4 MP camera, as a result, the photos taken by it, are more vibrant and sharper than an 8 MP camera.There are mostly two types of sensors used in smartphone camera.
i- CCD
ii- CMOS
CCD:
CCD (Charged Coupled Device) Charge Coupled Device (CCD) sensors are one of the oldest technology used in the digital camera. It offered bigger sensor size and hence better image.Pros:
- Bigger and more sensitive to light
- Better and vibrant images
- Better result in low light
Cons:
- Power hungry
- It is Expensive
CMOS:
CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors are slightly new technology compared to CCD sensors.Pros:
- Much easier and faster to design than CCD
- Lower power consumption
- Less expensive
Cons:
- Not sharp quality compared images as to CCD sensor.
- Low light sensitivity
CMOS sensors are mostly used in smartphones as they are less expensive and consume less power.
Aperture:
Aperture refers to the size of opening in the lens of the camera. It is usually described in terms of f-number like f/1.4, f/1.9, f/2 etc. Smaller aperture number is better than the large aperture number. The smaller aperture number means the opening in the lens will be wide open and more light will get in. The higher aperture works oppositely than the low aperture, which means low light will come in. Low aperture value means the low light photos will have better results.
ISO and Shutter Speed:
ISO is an industry standard and it refers to the sensitivity of camera to light. The higher ISO means your camera is more sensitive to light and you can take a better image in low light. But higher ISO also introduces noise into the captured image as it is electrically stimulating the sensor to brighten the image.Shutter Speed means the time for which the shutter keeps open to take a picture. The longer the shutter is open, more light it will capture and better image result. Usually the shutter is open for normal time, because longer shutter opening may leads to blurry and distorted image.
Camera Software:
Camera
software also plays an important role in the better image results. Because
image processing, color correction etc. type things are done by the software of
the camera. For better image results, you should have a better camera software.
There are many other camera apps are available, apart from camera software,
which provides you the more control and image capturing options. Also you can
edit and apply different filters on the go by using these camera apps.
As you have learned the basics of the smartphone camera. You can view the additional features, which mostly provided in high end smartphones. You can understand better that the image quality is a result of sufficient pixels, low aperture size, bigger sensor and ISO size. Hopefully you will be able to pick a better camera when both have same mega pixels.
As you have learned the basics of the smartphone camera. You can view the additional features, which mostly provided in high end smartphones. You can understand better that the image quality is a result of sufficient pixels, low aperture size, bigger sensor and ISO size. Hopefully you will be able to pick a better camera when both have same mega pixels.
