megapixels

DxO Labs tries making sense of camera lens sharpness

Aiming to make it easier for photography enthusiasts to evaluate photo gear, DxO Labs today announced a new method of measuring lens sharpness it hopes will make more intuitive sense.

The idea, called the perceptual megapixel, shows how much of a camera's original sensor resolution a particular lens can preserve when factors such as lens sharpness, optical defects, and sensor pixel size are taken into account.

One example the company provides: on a 21.1-megapixel Canon 5D Mark II, the Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG lens gets a score of 17.2 perceptual megapixels and the much higher-priced Carl … Read more

Amazon to sell Nokia 808 PureView with 41MP camera

If you have extra cash in your pocket, Nokia and Amazon are ready to bring your Nokia 808 PureView jealousy to an end.

Today, Nokia announced that it will sell the Symbian OS phone, famous for its jaw-dropping 41-megapixel camera, via Amazon to U.S. customers. It'll cost you $699.99 for the unlocked handset, in addition to the cost of a SIM card and AT&T plan. You can technically use the handset on T-Mobile's network as well, but it'll top out at 2G speeds.… Read more

With Nokia's 41-megapixel smartphone camera, size matters

I admit to having a certain fascination with the Nokia 808 PureView smartphone camera, which employs a much larger sensor than usual in order to take pictures up to 41 megapixels in size. Just how much larger that sensor is compared to the typical 5-megapixel and 8-megapixel smartphone sensors will impress you.

Yesterday I sat down with Juha Alakarhu, the head of camera technologies at Nokia for smart devices, who happens to be visiting the U.S. from Finland. After letting me tinker with the camera some more, he pulled out a felt-lined card studded with a trio of camera sensors and two camera modules, into which the sensors ultimately go.… Read more

When Nokia's '41-megapixel' PureView camera clicked for me

NEW ORLEANS--When you're stuck in the tornado of a cell phone conference, it's sometimes hard to savor what you see. I had sought out the Nokia 808 PureView at Mobile World Congress. I mean, a 41-megapixel camera -- how could I not investigate?

However, it wasn't until I had spent some time digging into the mechanics behind the phone camera that I started to really appreciate what the PureView camera does differently.

Here at CTIA is where it began to click. I had a moment to actually peruse the camera menus and take the test shots I wanted to see how oversampling worked in a meaningful way.… Read more

iPhone 5 hardware spec check

With Apple now on the record about an October 4 iPhone event, analysts are reaffirming their prognostications about the phone's hardware--and adding an item or two to a growing list of specifications.

Chris Whitmore, Deutsche Bank Equity Research, said in a research note Monday that he expects an iPhone 5 with aluminum unibody construction, better camera, and a slightly larger screen size. No big surprise there.

Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, said on Tuesday he expects better graphics silicon--not unlike the big performance increase that Apple boasted about for the iPad 2.

Piper Jaffray's Gene … Read more

Apple now training employees on iOS 5, iCloud?

Apple has reportedly already begun training its retail store employees on both iOS 5 and iCloud, sources have told 9to5Mac.

Such training usually kicks in a couple of weeks before a new product actually launches, which could mean that the latest iOS release and new cloud-based service may debut before the rumored timeframe of mid or late October.

These dates may also indicate the timing of the iPhone 5, according to 9to5Mac, which says that Apple usually unveils a new iOS version "in the days surrounding" a new iPhone. Last year, Apple released iOS 4 on June 21, … Read more

iPhone 5 to stick with smaller screen size?

Recent rumors about the iPhone 5 have claimed that Apple would bump up the screen size to at least 4 inches, but a story from DigiTimes offers a contrary take.

Citing sources from "upstream panel suppliers," DigiTimes rebuts the claims that the iPhone would sport a 4.2-inch screen size, which it says sprang from a leak from Apple's Web site in Switzerland early this month. Alleged design specs for iPhone 5 cases even prompted MacRumors to create some mockups of the new phone showing off a 4-inch screen.

But DigiTimes' sources say the iPhone 5 won'… Read more

Rumor: Analyst expects A5 and 8MP camera for iPhone 5

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a note with details on what to expect in the forthcoming iPhone 5. Juicy features include Apple's A5 processor and a much-improved 8-megapixel rear camera.

According to AppleInsider, Kuo's note says the A5 processor will match the performance of the one currently found in Apple's iPad 2, though no mention of the RAM quantity was made.

"He has also been told that Apple will switch to a Qualcomm baseband for both GSM and CDMA models, along with an improved antenna design."

Echoing other rumors that production on the iPhone … Read more

Due this year: 5-star rating for phone cameras

LONDON--Please, the collective camera industry pleads, give us something besides megapixels to rate our cameras. And one industry consortium hopes to do just that, at least when it comes to mobile phone cameras.

Megapixels are an imperfect, though not irrelevant, measurement of image quality. Reducing pixel size to squeeze more on a sensor can have the effect of reducing the quality of the data each pixel captures. Thus, particularly in the mobile phone market where sensors already are small, total megapixels isn't a be-all, end-all measurement.

But by the end of the year, the fast-growing mobile phone segment of … Read more