These days smartphone cameras are all the rage and it is one of the most important feature buyers consider before buying a smartphone.
Sony just unveiled its new 48mp camera sensor the IMX586 Sensor, according to Sony it has the highest pixel count in any camera. Which they claim is even higher than their 3000$ Mirrorless Camera – The Sony A7Riii. Not only that the sensor is capable of combining four adjacent pixels into one giving you a single 12mp picture that has greater sharpness and more light capture during night photography. Not only that the new 48mp sensor is capable of giving you sharper images even if you zoom in or crop the picture.
According to Sony:
Generally, miniaturization of pixels results in poor light collecting efficiency per pixel, accompanied by a drop in sensitivity and volume of saturation signal. This product was designed and manufactured with techniques that improve light collection efficiency and photoelectric conversion efficiency over conventional products, resulting in the world’s first 0.8 μm pixel size, with both high sensitivity and high saturation signal level.
This smaller pixel size lets it deliver 48 effective megapixels on a compact unit with 8.0 mm diagonal, which can be fitted on many smartphones. The increased pixel count enables high-definition imaging even on smartphones which use digital zoom.
This Sony sensor is no slouch when it comes to video recording as it can record 4k videos at 90 frames per second and 1080p at a whopping 240fps. Sony has been upping their camera sensor game from a long time. After their massively successful A7 Mirrorless Cameras they are targeting the Smartphone Camera Phone industry by supplying its sensor to all major mobile phone companies. One of their biggest buyers is Apple. Apple have been using Sony camera sensors for a long time and this sensor is capable of fixing Apple’s iPhone low light picture quality. Sony has already invested over $376million dollar to expand their sensor manufacturing facility in Japan just to fulfill their sensor demand from Apple.
All speculation leads us to believe that future Apple iPhones may be equipped with this 48mp Sensor to keep Apple relevant in Smartphone Photography space which they have lost recently in the hands of Huawei and Google Pixel. While Google Pixel had one of the best smartphone camera last year Huawei with its P20 Pro was able to catch up with its triple sensor tech. This Sony sensor is capable of going head on with Huawei without adding three sensors on the back!
