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Posts Tagged ‘array’

OnePlus reveals 8 series smartphones with triple-camera array

14 Apr

Smartphone maker OnePlus has just launched its new OnePlus series. Thanks to a, at least on paper, pretty impressive looking camera specification, the flagship OnePlus 8 Pro is the device in the series most mobile photographers should have an eye on.

Triple camera setup

The camera features a triple lens-setup, plus an additional time-of-flight (ToF) sensor that will presumably be used to improve depth estimation in bokeh mode and fine-tune the autofocus. Overall the spec sheet looks very similar to sister brand Oppo’s flagship Find X2 Pro.

Like on pretty much any flagship phone these days, the main camera gets support from a dedicated tele and a super-wide-angle. The main module features a 1/1.4″ 48MP Sony IMX689 Quad-Bayer sensor that uses pixel-binning to produce 12MP image output with lower noise and a wider dynamic range than conventional sensors. OnePlus is following the trend for larger image sensors in smartphone cameras, but some competitors, for example Huawei’s P40 Pro or the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro come with even larger chips (1/1.28″ and 1/1.33″ respectively).

The lens is optically stabilized and comes with a F1.78 aperture and 26mm-equivalent field-of-view.

The super-wide-angle uses a smaller 1/2.0″ sensor but is also of the 48MP Quad-Bayer variant which, in combination with the F2.2. aperture, should be able to perform pretty well, even in dim light. The 16mm-equivalent focal length is pretty much in line with many competitors, but some, for example Samsung’s latest high-end models and Apple’s iPhone 11 series, offer wider viewing angles.

The dedicated tele camera features a stabilized 74mm-equivalent lens which equates to a 3x magnification. At 8MP the resolution isn’t the highest we have seen and some models in the high-end bracket feature longer lenses, for example the folded optics from Huawei and Oppo. Xiaomi even applies a dual-tele approach to optimize performance at shorter and longer zoom distances.

The 4K/60fps video mode is pretty much standard in the high-end segment these days and should allow for detailed video capture with smooth motion. It also features HDR video capture. In addition the OnePlus offers 720p/480fps and 1080p/240fps slow-motion settings and a time-lapse mode.

The camera setup is completed with an LED-flash and color sensor. In comparison to the main module, the front camera specs look pretty pedestrian.

Front camera

The selfie shooter uses a 16MP 1/3-inch Sony IMX471 with 16MP resolution and a fixed-focus lens. Video recording maxes out at 1080p/30fps. Some competitors already offer 4K recording and autofocus at the front. What’s new versus the OnePlus 7 generation is the location of the selfie camera. On the new model it is hidden under a cutout in the display. The previous model used a pop-up front camera which allowed for an uninterrupted display without any notches or cutouts. The advantage of the new design is that the 8 Pro is now IP68-rated for environmental protection – something that would have been very difficult to achieve with a pop-up mechanism.

Non-camera specs are pretty much in line with the current crop of flagship Android phones. The device is powered by a 5G-enabled Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chipset and features fast LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.0 storage which should ensure snappy operation, even of the most demanding apps and games.

Images can be viewed and composed on a 6.78-inch QHD+ OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate (up from the previous generation’s 90Hz), 240Hz touch sampling rate and HDR10/10+. A dedicated MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation) chip – technology adopted from TVs – reduces motion blur in videos by calculating and inserting additional video frames. Using this technology the OnePlus 8Pro is capable of up-scaling 24fps content to 120fps. According to OnePlus the new technology can be used with a wide range of apps, including Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, BiliBili, iQiyi, MX Player, Netflix, OnePlus Gallery app, Tencent Video, VLC, Youku, and YouTube.

Other specs include a massive 4510mAh battery with 30W fast wireless charging, an in-display fingerprint reader and up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

OnePlus 8

The company also launched the standard OnePlus 8 which shares a lot of the basic specs, including chipset and memory options, with the Pro model, but comes with a smaller 6.55-Inch AMOLED display, a smaller 4300mAh battery and a simpler camera setup. The primary camera features a Sony IMX586 1/2″ sensor and is accompanied by a 16MP ultra-wide and a dedicated macro camera.

Availability and pricing

The new models will be available to purchase from April 21 in Europe and April 29 in North America. Pricing starts at $ 699 for the OnePlus 8 with 8GB of RAM. The 12/256GB version will set you back $ 799. The 8/128GB variant of the Pro model is $ 899 while the top-end OnePlus 8 Pro with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage retails at $ 999.

You can watch the keynote event here:

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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iFixit tears down a Galaxy S20 Ultra to show off the ridiculous camera array

05 Mar

Repair site iFixit has published its in-depth teardown of Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S20 Ultra. In addition to the video above, iFixit also shared a detailed account of the autopsy, including close-up shots of the impressive camera array Samsung has packed inside this monster.

The motherboard assembly, which includes the camera array, is carefully removed from the Galaxy S20 Ultra unit.

As a quick refresher, the Galaxy S20 Ultra features a camera array consisting of three individual modules: a 12-megapixel F2.2 ultra-wide camera module, a 108-megapixel F1.8 wide-angle camera module and a 48-megapixel F3.5 telephoto camera module, the last of which offers up to 100x zoom through a combination of optical and digital zoom with a little AI and software trickery for good measure. On the front of the S20 Ultra is a ridiculous 40-megapixel front-facing camera as well.

The 108-megapixel sensor inside the Galaxy S20 Ultra (top) shown alongside the 12-megapixel primary sensor inside Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro.

First up on the docket was the 108-megapixel (9.5mm x 7.3mm) wide-angle camera, powered by Samsung’s ISOCELL Bright HM1 ‘Nonacell’ image sensor. As iFixit points out, this massive sensor features roughly double the surface area compared to the iPhone 11 Pro’s 12-megapixel primary sensor and uses Samsung’s Nonacell pixel-binning technology to bring the final image down to approximately 12-megapixels.The 12-megapixel F2.2 ultra-wide camera module was glossed over in the teardown, but given a nod in the video as it’s removed from the main camera assembly.

From there, iFixit took a closer look at the 48-megapixel F3.5 telephoto camera module, which is responsible for the 100x ‘Space Zoom’ advertised on the outside of the camera bump. Similar to other periscope-style zoom lenses seen in past smartphones, Samsung uses an array of zoom lenses behind an optically-stablized prism (which is used to redirect the light 90-degrees) to get up to 4x zoom capability. As noted above, the 100x ‘Space Zoom’ is achieved through a combination of sensor cropping, digital zoom and software.

The prism (top) redirects the light 90-degrees through the lenses housed within the assembly (black box, above where the tweezers are positioned), which slides back and forth within the guides to offer up to 4x optical zoom.

Other components onboard the Galaxy S20 Ultra include the 6.9-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O Display (3200 x 1440 pixel, 511ppi, up to 120Hz refresh), a Snapdragon 865 processor, up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 5,000mAh battery. As you might expect for a smartphone that manages to pack that much tech inside its frame, the device doesn’t score too well on iFixit’s repairability chart. When all was said and done, iFixit gave the Galaxy S20 Ultra a three out of ten.

You can find more images and read peruse through the entire teardown over on iFixit’s website.

Image credits: Photos via iFixit, used with permission

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro offers quad-camera array, 4K60 video, cinematic bokeh and more

20 Sep

Today, Huawei unveiled the Mate 30 Pro at a launch event in Munich, Germany. The device is Huawei’s latest flagship and much like Apple’s presentation last week, there was a strong emphasis on the imaging capabilities of the device.

Mate 30 Pro

At the heart of the Mate 30 Pro smartphones is the Kirin 990 processor, a chipset that will come in 4G and 5G versions for various markets. This marks the first time we’ve seen the Kirin 990 in a device and carries on the trend of Huawei putting its latest, most advanced chipset in its Mate series smartphones.

The screen on the Mate 30 Pro is a 6.53-inch curved OLED ‘Horizon’ display with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,176 pixels. The ‘Horizon’ nickname refers to the wrap-around screen, which covers the edges of the device and serves as a means of changing settings via virtual buttons on the sides of the device.

On the imaging front, the Mate 30 Pro feature a Leica-branded camera unit on the rear of the devices that features four cameras: a 40-megapixel super-wide-angle camera with an F1.8 aperture and a 1/1.7-inch sensor (17mm 35mm equivalent), a wide-angle image-stabilized 40-megapixel wide-angle camera with an F1.6 aperture and 1/1.7-inch sensor (27mm 35mm equivalent), an image-stabilized 8-megapixel 3x telephoto camera with an F2.4 aperture (80mm 35mm equivalent) as well as a time-of-flight (ToF) camera for improved depth-sensing.

Considering the image processing capabilities of the Kirin 990 chipset, it shouldn’t come as a surprise the Mate 30 Pro will feature impressive photo and video capabilities. In addition to 4K video at 60 frames per second, the phones can also capture slo-mo 1080p video at up to 960 fps and 720p video at up to 7,680 fps. Huawei also showed off a 4K HDR+ time-lapse function with up to 12-hours of recording as well as a real-time ‘cinematic bokeh’ mode for video.

The front-facing selfie camera is a whopping 32-megapixels and will work with a number of AR photo and video features within the operating system (OS) and third-party applications, including new gesture-control functionality.

Speaking of the operating system, the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro both run on EMUI 10, a Huawei-created OS that takes a great deal of inspiration from Google’s latest mobile operating system Android 10. After being blacklisted by the United States government over security concerns, Huawei announced it was investing $ 1 billion into its operating system and app ecosystem. The Mate 30 Pro (and the Mate 30, which we’ve addressed below) are the first devices to use this new system.

Tucked inside the device is a 4500mAh battery that supports Huawei SuperCharge up to 40W and wireless charging up to 27W.

The Mate 30 Pro will come in six colors: silver, green, purple, black and two vegan leather options— green and orange. The device is IP68 water- and dust-resistant.

Mate 30

Alongside the flagship Mate 30 Pro, Huawei also announced the more budget-friendly Mate 30. The Mate 30 features a slightly larger display but a decreased resolution of 2,340 x 1,080 pixels. It also swaps out the 40-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera for a 16-megapixel sensor and a slower F2.2 aperture, removes the ToF sensor the Mate 30 Pro offers and shrinks the battery to 4,200mAh.

Video from the camera modules is also limited in the Mate 30; 4K video can still be shot at 60 fps, but slo-mo is limited to 960 fps in 720p. Interestingly enough, Huawei has included a 3.5mm headphone jack in the Mate 30 while ditching it for the Mate 30 Pro, so if you want wired audio, you’re better off with the Mate 30.

Pricing and availability

The Huawei Mate 30 will be available with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage starting at €799. The Mate 30 Pro will feature 8GB of storage as well, but boost internal storage to 256GB starting at €1099 for the 4G model and €1199 for the 5G model. Regional availability was not disclosed as of publishing this article.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Samsung Galaxy A80 phone unveiled with sliding, rotating triple-camera array

12 Apr

Samsung has unveiled one of its most unique smartphones to date: the Galaxy A80. This model features a sliding pop-up camera array that contains a 48MP F2.0 main camera, an 8MP F2.2 ultrawide camera and a time-of-flight sensor. A rotation mechanism enables the cameras to flip from facing the rear to the front of the phone when appropriate, eliminating the need for a ‘notch’ or ‘hole punch’ in the display.

The camera mechanism is the Galaxy A80’s most notable feature, making the higher-quality rear cameras available for activities that would ordinarily involve a lower-quality front-facing camera, such as snapping selfies and livestreaming. According to Samsung, the sliding mechanism is activated and the cameras are rotated when the user selects the A80’s ‘selfie mode.’

The main 48MP camera is able to capture ‘vivid images’ at night, Samsung claims, and the technology enables Live Focus videos by gathering depth and measurement data on objects visible in the scene. Other camera features include Super Steady video for ‘pro-level action’ shots, a Scene Optimizer feature that can recognize up to 30 scenes, and Flaw Detection for automatically identifying ‘glitches’ before the image is taken.

Cameras aside, the Galaxy A80 features a 6.7″ Full HD+ 1080 x 2400 Super AMOLED display alongside 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 3700mAh battery. The model supports fast charging and has a fingerprint sensor embedded in the display.

According to The Verge, the Galaxy A80 will be available in Europe, the Middle East, Russia, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, China and Hong Kong starting on May 29 in gold, white, and black color options. Samsung hasn’t revealed the price at this time.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Panda Power Plant: Shaped Solar Panel Array Forms China’s National Animal

06 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Drawing & Digital & Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

The world’s largest solar power-producing nation is showing off its record-setting green energy production through an adorable new array shaped like a giant panda bear, the national animal of China.

This Panda Power Plant in Datong, China, is the brainchild of Panda Green Energy in partnership with the United Nations Development Program. And this first sections of this huge creature-shaped station mosaic have just been hooked up to the grid.

The plant also going to grow — currently at 50 megawatts, the installation will have a capacity of 100 MW upon completion. Over the next 25 years, the array is estimated to provide as much power as a million tons of coal and to reduce CO2 emissions by over 2.5 million tons.

The whole panda figure is part of the power production process: darker parts of the animal shape (like legs and arms) are made up of monocrystalline silicone solar cells — gray areas (face and torso) are thin-film solar cells.

An educational center alongside the Panda Power Plant aims to teach children about the advantages of solar power and other forms of sustainable energy. Meanwhile, more panda plants are in planning phases as well across China, and some may also end up outside the country.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Drawing & Digital & Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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Voltaic Array and Offgrid solar backpacks charge gear on the go

03 Nov

Voltaic has launched two new backpacks on Kickstarter, the Array and Offgrid. Both models feature integrated solar panels and removable batteries that charge when the bag is in sunlight. The Offgrid model is the smaller of the two, featuring a 6W solar panel and a 4,000mAh battery, while the Array has a larger 10W solar panel and a 19,800mAh battery. Both batteries can be removed and charged using a wall outlet, as well.

The Array model includes Voltaic’s V72 Universal Laptop Battery with selectable 12V, 16V, and 19V options for charging ordinary laptops. It also has a USB port for charging USB devices. The battery takes 12 hours to charge via solar or 4 hours to charge from a wall outlet, and it is suitable for charging a DSLR camera between 3 and 6.5 times, a tablet 2.5 to 3 times, a drone one time, a laptop up to 1.7 times, or a smartphone between 4.5 and 8 times.

The Offgrid bag model is for less demanding devices, featuring a V15 Universal USB Battery with a 5V/1A output. This battery takes 4.5 hours to charge in the sun or 4 hours to charge from USB, and it can recharge a DSLR between 0.7 and 1.5 times. If that’s not substantial enough, however, Voltaic also offers a V44 12,000mAh battery upgrade, enabling it to charge a DSLR between 2 and 4.5 times.

In addition to the solar panel and battery, both models feature easy access channels for the wires, a padded sleeve for a tablet or laptop, space for a camera and lenses, an attachment for carrying a tripod, and external carry straps for attaching other things (such as a sleeping pad) to the bag. The bags are waterproof and described as ‘rugged.’

Voltaic is seeking funding for the bags on Kickstarter, where it offers the Offgrid as an early bird unit for pledges $ 119 or higher, and an early bird Array for pledges of $ 219 or more. The company anticipates the early bird models shipping to backers this December, while non-early bird models are estimated to start shipping in March 2017.

Via: Kickstarter

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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An array of Canon 400mm F2.8L II lenses is helping astronomers discover new galaxies

27 Oct
The Dragonfly Telephoto Array. Photo by Pieter van Dokkum

When Astronomer Pieter van Dokkum was looking for ways to study galaxies, he turned to the equipment he was familiar with as an amateur photographer. Thanks in part to some advanced optical coatings, he and his research team have been able to discover previously unseen galaxies.

In 2011, van Dokkum and fellow professor and astronomer Roberto Abraham, were discussing ways to find a way to get a better look into the very diffuse cosmic light that’s scattered by traditional telescopes like Hubble. Van Dokkum’s thoughts turned to his consumer imaging equipment, and some claims Canon was making about its then-recently-released 400mm F2.8L II. 

Introduced in August the previous year, the 400mm F2.8L II offers what Canon calls ‘a SubWavelength Structure Coating (SWC), which uses microscopic cone-shaped structures smaller than a wavelength of visible light’ to reduce internal reflections and scattered light. This kind of coating would theoretically help collect enough light to study galaxies with low ‘surface brightness’, and sure enough, it did. Says van Dokkum: ‘We compared their performance to those of the best reflecting telescopes, and found that they produce almost an order of magnitude better suppression of the wings of the point spread function – probably in part because of the SWC coatings.’ In short, the 400mm F2.8L II fit the bill.

More lenses were acquired and the Dragonfly Telephoto Array was born (clustering lenses allows researchers to increase the effective aperture of the system). Van Dokkum and Abraham started with eight lenses, and now operate two mounts with a total of 48 lenses.

Custom connectors, as well as off-the-shelf components like Intel Compute Sticks help drive Dragonfly. Photo by Pieter van Dokkum

You won’t find a Canon EOS 5DSR behind anywhere on the array, though. Each lens is attached to its own science-grade 8MP CCD camera, and has a custom astronomical filter slotted in. There’s a custom-built connector between each camera and the lens that can drive focus, and an Intel Compute Stick attached to each camera takes care of data recording and some processing. It’s all controlled by a central computer that can carry out commands like ‘auto-observe Mars’ and ‘expose 900 seconds’. 

The array has helped examine much-observed heavenly bodies like the Coma Cluster, where they’ve been able to identify what the research team has dubbed ‘ultradiffuse galaxies.’ They continue to discover more of these galaxies with the help of Dragonfly, and aim to keep learning about their variety and formation. 

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Google and GoPro unveil 16-camera ‘Array’ VR rig

30 May

During the re/code Code Conference earlier this week in California, GoPro’s CEO Nick Woodman detailed a rig the company is working on that will accommodate six Hero4 cameras to record multi-angle footage for virtual reality uses. Google revealed a similar setup at its I/O 2015 conference yesterday, with the primary exception being that it holds 16 GoPro action cameras rather than six. The rig is called Array, and it was made in partnership with GoPro for Google’s new Jump virtual reality platform. Click through to read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Pelican Imaging releases light field photos from its mobile imaging array

29 Jul

Pelican Imaging has released a set of re-focusable pictures taken with its light field camera for smartphones. Instead of placing an array of microlenses between the sensor and the main lens, Pelican uses an array of main lenses – each with a sensor behind it. Pelican’s offering is more suitable for smartphones, and their sample images allow for re-focusing, changing DOF, and shifting perspective. Click through for more details and links to the images.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Fujifilm files patent for color filter array with different-sized pixels

24 Jan

Fujifilm-RGBW-pixels-crop.png

Fujifilm has filed a patent for an image sensor that uses a novel layout, with green and clear rectangular pixels which are larger in area than their neighboring blue and red pixels. The idea behind it is apparently to reduce luminance noise at the expense of color noise, on the grounds that the human eye is less sensitive to the latter. Learn more

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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