In recent days, Samsung's Galaxy S22 series can be said to be one of the hottest topics in the entire mobile phone industry. After all, as the latest flagship product of the veteran head manufacturer, the Galaxy S22 series also includes many "industry premieres" aura, and fully demonstrates Samsung's strong self-research and self-production capabilities.
However, looking at the image configuration of the Galaxy S22 series, you will find an interesting phenomenon, the "middle cup" and "big cup" have switched to the new CMOS solution GN5 that has just been released, while the "super cup" Galaxy S22 Ultra has followed the same model as the previous generation, released in early 2021, 108 million pixel HM3 sensor.
Obviously, this phenomenon is indeed a bit misleading.
Because this may make unknown consumers, produce the wrong conclusion that "108 million pixels is still stronger than 50 million pixels". But in fact, the key factor that many people may forget is that HM3 is a flagship CMOS that Samsung develops, produces, uses, and has never been sold to the public so far. A large part of the reason why Samsung chose to use it is probably that they are familiar enough with this CMOS to know how to further tap its image quality potential (this can be seen from the AdvancedRAW APP adapted to the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which HM3 achieves a 16-bit image capability that has never been announced before).
What does this mean? To put it simply, at least from the currently known information, the 50 million pixel main camera used by the vast majority of brand flagship models this year will still be stronger in the imaging experience than the 108 million pixel solution used by brands other than Samsung, which was once popular in 2020.
50 million is better than 100 million, is it that simple?
Looking at the currently known, and upcoming flagship model rear main camera solution, it will be found that it mainly focuses on three pixel gears, namely 50 million pixels, 108 million pixels, and 200 million (including 194 million) pixels.
According to the "general" cognition, the 108 million pixel scheme first appeared in early 2020, represented by Xiaomi's first HMX, Samsung's exclusive HM1, HM3, and HM2 adopted by many brands. The biggest feature of these CMOS is that they generally have a large (note the wording) sensor area, which can achieve a much more natural bokeh effect than in the past. But at the same time, none of them have a good focus design, resulting in all models that use a 108-megapixel main camera, without exception, can not use the main camera for macro shooting (Samsung is no exception), if there is no special remedial design, then the macro experience will be very bad.
In contrast, the "modern" 50-megapixel outsole solution appeared at the end of 2020 and flourished in 2021. Representative models and sensors are OPPO Reno5 Pro+ and its debut IMX766, and later IMX776V (vivo custom), Samsung GN1, GN2, GN5 and many other models. This batch of 50 million pixel CMOS has a common feature, that is, it has an "omni-pixel omnidirectional focus" design, whether in the daily focus speed, or the close-up shooting ability of the main camera, compared with the previous 108 million pixel scheme has been significantly enhanced.
As for the 200-megapixel CMOS, according to the various public and exposed information currently available, they will appear as soon as this year. At present, there are at least three known models, one is Samsung's HP1 (200 million pixels), the other is Howey's OVB0B (200 million pixels), and a new product that, although the model is unknown, has been clearly determined to be a new product with a smaller single pixel (0.56μm) design, which is expected to be available within the year. The biggest feature of all these 200 million pixel-level CMOS is that they will adopt a "16-pixel-in-one" and "4-pixel-in-one" dual-mode design, with two composite sizes of 12.5 million and 50 million pixels, which can theoretically take into account the needs of low light and high resolution.
So, why should we elaborate on the time-to-market and technical characteristics of these three pixel-bit CMOS solutions? The reason is simple, because the image level of these CMOS on specific models has nothing to do with their pixel numbers and time to market.
It's useless to look at the number of pixels, because there is still cat grease inside each gear
Yes, because no matter which "gear" it is, manufacturers actually have many detail design differences that consumers may not be aware of. And these differences are actually the real key.
Among them, taking the 108 million pixel file as an example, Samsung's own use and the latest HM3 are obviously the top products. Because it has the hardware 12-bit color capture capability that other similar CMOS do not have, and its own focus design also has a special special design, although it is still not as good as "dual-core focus" in theory, the experience has been much better than other 100 million pixel CMOS.
The HM2's small background and small pixels make its detail performance worse than many 50 million pixel main cameras
In contrast, the HM2, which is common on some lower-priced models, has a less than satisfactory imaging experience in many cases. That's because it's only 1/1.56 of an inch in size and has a single pixel area of just 0.7 μm, which is smaller than many 50-megapixel sensors. As a result, the HM2's light sensitivity is relatively weak, coupled with the fact that there is no focus enhancement design, so it is difficult to call it a flagship level in terms of picture transparency and shooting reaction.
The same situation actually happened in the 50 million pixel file. In the 50 million pixel file, Xiaomi's exclusive GN2 is obviously the strongest "Big Brother". Its stunning 1.4μm single pixel area, oversized 1/1.12-inch spec, and ultra-powerful all-pixel dual-core focus Pro structure are all destined for better bokeh and sharper detail than the massive 108 million pixel CMOS.
At the 50-megapixel level, the JN1's performance is not very satisfactory
But at the same time, the relatively "mediocre" IMX766 and GN1 may not be able to "take advantage" in the face of a deeply optimized 108 million pixel solution like HM3. Not to mention that there is also a "strange" ultra-small bottom JN1 in the 50 million pixels. Only 1/2.76 inch, it was originally prepared by Samsung for some front-camera and ultra-wide-angle solutions, but it has also been taken by some mobile phone manufacturers to do the main camera of some models. So at first glance, although it is also a "50 million pixel main camera", the actual experience in addition to the focus speed is acceptable, the other can only be said who uses who knows.
As for the 200 million pixel CMOS, from the currently known situation, Samsung HP1 has Smart ISO Pro and stacked HDR exposure technology, which makes its video shooting ability may not be too bad. The overall size of 1/1.22 also means that if optimized properly, its static light capture capability is also expected to exceed 1/1.33-inch HMX, GN1 and other 108 million pixels and 50 million pixel solutions, but it is likely to be inferior to GN2.
In contrast, Howey's two 200-million-pixel CMOS are inferior to HP1 in terms of both total and single-pixel sensing area due to the use of smaller pixels (one 0.61μm and one 0.56μm). Their smaller size and ability to fit into thinner bodies are perhaps their biggest strength (they are rumored to be as small as 1/1.5 inch).
Looking for this ladder map, it may be easier to find a camera phone
This means that whether it is 100 million pixels, 50 million pixels, or 200 million pixels, there may be considerable differences in cmOS quality of the same pixels. At the same time, there is no way to directly say between different pixel levels that "XX megapixel must be better than XXX megapixel".
In order to make it clearer, we only use the single pixel area, focus design, and color level depth as reference indicators to roughly list such a theoretically possible quality echelon.
First Echelon: Samsung GN2 (50MP, 1/1.12 inch)
Third Echelon: Sony IMX766 (50MP, 1/1.56 inch), Samsung GN5 (50MP, 1/1.56 inch)
Fourth echelon: Samsung HMX (108 million pixels, 1/1.33 inch), Samsung HM1 (108 million pixels, 1/1.33 inches)
Fifth Echelon: Samsung HM2 (108 million pixels, 1/1.56 inch)
Sixth Echelon: Samsung JN1 (50MP, 1/2.76 inch), Howey New CMOS (200 million pixels, 1/1.5 inch)
Of course, the above ranking basically only represents the evaluation experience of our three easy life so far, as well as the speculation and summary results of the CMOS sensor technology analysis. In practical applications, due to the level of optimization of each manufacturer, the possibility of changes in the actual ranking is not impossible.
But what is really important is that we want to remind everyone that the level of pixels can never directly represent the quality of the camera effect of the mobile phone, and there is no situation that "high pixels must be better than low pixels" and "low pixels must be better than high pixels". After all, the "water is too deep" for mobile CMOS, and it may be difficult for ordinary consumers who do not know much about detailed technical indicators to make such a judgment.
【The picture of this article comes from the network】