Recently, there is a message that is easy to ignore, but it is also very important for mobile phone consumers.
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the first "Technical Requirements and Test Methods for Image and Video Stabilization Performance of Mobile Terminals". Jointly formulated by the China Communications Institute, Aipeiyi Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd., Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Samsung, etc. over a period of four years, the "Method" will become a unified standard for using global mobile phone manufacturers to sell mobile devices in China.
This industry standard specifies the technical requirements, test environment and test methods for the image and video stabilization performance of mobile terminal camera equipment for mobile terminals with photographic or camera stabilization (products with OIS, EIS, integrated stabilization or other technical types).
That is to say, the standard not only applies to mobile phone products, but also other mobile camera devices can also be used by reference.
Since the standard is led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it can be regarded as the mainland's "national standard" for the image and video stabilization performance of mobile devices such as smartphones, and the equipment sold by global mobile phone manufacturers in China in the future must follow this industry standard. This has a long-term significance for the development of smartphone imaging technology in the future.
So after the introduction of this national standard, what is the significance for our ordinary consumers? Absolutely.
There are two mainstream stabilization technologies for current smartphones, one is EIS electronic image stabilization, and the other is OIS optical image stabilization. In addition to two kinds, there are also self-developed "micro-gimbals" such as vivo, which can be seen as an extension of optical image stabilization.
In general, OIS optical image stabilization is better at stabilization than EIS electronic image stabilization. The former is mainly through software algorithms to achieve the stabilization effect, mainly through the acceleration sensor and gyroscope module to detect the amplitude of the phone jitter, so as to dynamically adjust the whole ISO, shutter and imaging algorithms to do fuzzy correction. When shooting video, electronic stabilization mainly relies on cropping the edges of the picture and retaining the central area to achieve the purpose of stabilization.
OIS optical image stabilization is a technology that achieves image stabilization through hardware, which corrects the "optical axis offset" through the floating of the lens. I believe that many people have seen the video of "chicken head stabilization", and its principle is similar to optical image stabilization. After the built-in gyroscope of the mobile phone feels the shaking of the mobile phone, it will notify the processor and let it adjust the angle of the entire component according to the amplitude of the lens shaking, so as to achieve the purpose of counteracting the shaking of the picture.
Of course, today's mobile phones often use a variety of stabilization modes to achieve the best stabilization effect in the stabilization algorithm. The stabilization effect is good, which is very helpful for the daily imaging of the mobile phone. It doesn't just mean that the videos you take are more stable. At the same time, with the help of optical image stabilization function, some optical conditions are not ideal, and the ability to obtain picture quality is much better than that of ordinary mobile phones.
Most flagship phones on the market are equipped with optical image stabilization. Some flagships, even each lens is equipped with OIS optical image stabilization, and most of the thousand yuan machine and hundred yuan machine basically do not have optical image stabilization function, and its built-in image stabilization is mainly done through the form of electronic stabilization. The reason is also very simple, because optical image stabilization is much higher in terms of technical difficulty and hardware cost than electronic image stabilization.
It is precisely because most mobile phones on the market currently have great differences in the equipment of anti-shake function, which has caused many mobile phone manufacturers to take advantage of loopholes when promoting photos and videos. Manufacturers often always emphasize a variety of dazzling anti-shake functions when promoting their own products, all kinds of stability, but lack a unified and standardized industry standard.
When you buy a mobile phone, manufacturers often focus on promoting that their mobile phones are very stable in shooting videos and that low-light shooting is also clear. But you simply don't know whether their stabilization is electronic image stabilization or optical image stabilization, and there is no good measure of the specific level and level of stabilization effect.
Now, after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has launched this "national standard", the technical requirements, test environment and test methods of the stabilization technology used by mobile phone manufacturers have been carefully standardized. This means that manufacturers can no longer be vague when advertising their own stabilization effects in the future, but have clear standards to measure how many levels or how many points your phone's stabilization level is.
With this standard, consumers can also intuitively understand the stabilization effect of their mobile phones. Now many people like to take pictures, take short videos, I believe that after learning about the benefits of optical image stabilization technology, many people will be more inclined to choose some mobile phones equipped with optical image stabilization capabilities, which is also conducive to the popularization and promotion of optical image stabilization functions in some affordable markets.
In fact, this year we have noticed that many mobile phone manufacturers are consciously promoting optical image stabilization functions, such as the K40S launched by Redmi some time ago, a very important upgrade is to increase the optical image stabilization function on the basis of the previous generation.
The full rollout of any functional features can only make consumers aware of the importance of the function, and then manufacturers have the determination and perseverance to promote. At present, although the hardware cost of OIS optical image stabilization is high, it will also reduce costs after a large-scale rollout, which is conducive to promotion.
From this point of view, the emergence of a new "national standard" for anti-shake will undoubtedly greatly promote this process. I believe that it will not be long before we can see more OIS optical image stabilization functions on some affordable or even entry-level models, and the camera capabilities of many ordinary mobile phones will be greatly improved in the future.