A few days ago, StudioBinder launched an analysis of the lens zoom and editing method of the Battle of Hot Springs Pass in the Spartan 300 Warrior movie.
This "ballet-like stretch and natural shot" pushes the atmosphere to a climax as soon as it appears in the film, and together with BGM, it intuitively shows the combat effectiveness of the Spartan 300 warriors.
This long lens has complex variations, including multiple shifts and zooms. In designing this storyboard, director Zack Snyder originally intended to complete this complex idea with a "mad horse" lens.
The Mad Horse shot, derived from the 1996 "Mad Horse" film, uses a beamsplitter to split the picture, and then record it together with two cameras, and then uses compositing.
But in the Spartan 300 Warriors shot, the "Crazy Horse" lens occasionally loses focus and is difficult to adjust quickly.
▲ Different focal lengths to record different viewing angle compositions. Image courtesy of StudioBinder
Inspired by this, Schneider used three Arriflex 435 ES cameras to shoot side by side. And in order to quickly zoom and change speed in the later stages, the three cameras used lenses with 21mm, 50mm and 100mm focal lengths respectively, and shot at 100fps frame rate.
In post-production, the software is composed and the speed is freely changed, and the shot that is only ten seconds away but deeply rooted in people's hearts is completed.
▲ The push-pull and-pull speed of the picture is from the later stage. Image credit: Spartan 300 Warriors
Whether it is the "crazy horse" lens or Schneider's three-camera co-shooting, it is almost the same as the multi-camera system of today's smart phones.
▲ The iPhone 11 Pro uses FiLMiC Pro to achieve multi-camera shooting. Image courtesy of Apple
However, the multi-camera joint shooting on the mobile phone is not so troublesome, and with the improvement of the chip's computing power, multi-lens shooting has also begun to become more "fool".
Putting the camera on the phone, the current era of computational photography has only passed twenty years, and the competition has become more and more fierce.
Mobile phone images have opened the fifth wave of "inner volume"
The first wave, pixels.
The concept of "pixels" can be said to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and many people often default to saying "pixels are really high" when praising photos that look good.
▲ The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro with 100 million pixels
Whether it is a traditional camera or a later mobile phone camera, stacking pixels has always been the first practice. From hundreds of thousands of pixels, it has soared to the order of 100 million in a few years. However, it also follows the marginal effect, and the increase in pixels will put too much pressure on the system, from storage, photoelectric conversion and so on.
Even after the "Quad Bayer" sensor design on smartphones supports four-in-one pixels, the current number of pixels in smartphones has remained at 100 million.
The second wave, the number of cameras.
What are the biggest advantages of multi-camera systems?
Naturally, there is a wider zoom range of the lens, which means that more scenes and subjects can be shot.
Although, the so-called zoom in the multi-camera system on the mobile phone is not a small difference from the zoom on the traditional lens. However, after cutting, the "relay" such as optical digital zoom is more consistent in the daily experience.
Dual-camera, triple-camera, four-shot and now five-shot, in addition to zoom, also introduced a lot of featured lenses, such as black and white, macro and even microscopes, etc., but also added a lot of fun play.
However, now that the mobile phone image has begun to tilt towards the algorithm, the multi-camera system has also steadily stayed in three or four shots, which is also the result of balancing the number of cameras and practicality.
Third wave, sensor size.
Similar to pixels, sensor size is also a major attribute of traditional camera manufacturers competing for strength.
The larger the sensor size, the easier it is to get pure photos in low-light environments, and there will be better bokeh effects.
▲ Sony RX100 Black Card vs Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. Image courtesy of: dpreview
The sensor size of the iPhone 4 is about 1/3.2 inch, and now the outsole of a smartphone is almost infinitely close to 1 inch.
In terms of hardware alone, today's mobile phones have made great leaps forward in photo purity and bokeh. However, the purity and bokeh of the photo can also be done through the "algorithm" with a smaller sensor.
The size of the strong reactor sensor is no longer the mainstream choice.
The fourth wave, computational photography.
"Computational photography" should have appeared on Google's Pixel phone as early as possible, when the dream single camera could play with many multi-camera systems.
With the strengthening of the SoC computing power of smart phones, as well as the rise of module performance such as AI and ISP, a set of mature and effective algorithms can easily make up for the lack of hardware, or with the previous hardware, it can have full progress.
▲ Pixel Night Sight effect sample. Image from Google
Functions such as night scenes, portraits, and AI stylization are the main features of smartphones at this time. Because the algorithms are not much different, smartphones are also difficult to get rid of "homogenization" in terms of image "personalized" expression and unique functions.
Fifth wave, custom ISPs.
For the sake of uniqueness and personalization, manufacturers are aiming for custom ISPs.
▲ OPPO Find X5 Pro with built-in Mariana X chip
Until now, there are not many products with custom ISPs, which are still in their infancy, but the results are very obvious.
Whether it is the stylization of photos, the unique features (night vision), or even the "visible and available" are "one-glance" differences compared to products that do not have a separate ISP.
▲ Vivo X80 Pro with built-in vivo V1+ self-developed ISP
Custom ISPs with their own algorithms are not easily limited by the performance of the same ISP in the SoC, completely opening up the landscape.
From hardware to algorithms to self-developed chips, mobile phone images have also changed from followers of traditional images to creators of moving images, which is a process of quantitative change to qualitative change.
Rolled up five waves, what changed?
Returning to the product level, in the past two decades of rapid development of mobile phone images, the problem solving is still the classic "shoot" and "shoot well".
The "clarity" brought by high pixels, the multi-camera system solves the problem of "shooting", and the outsole, computational photography and self-developed ISP are both shot and shot.
From the perspective of development trends, it is taken without regard to aesthetics, even if the resulting photos have noise, false colors, and color casts, until the premise of shooting, to obtain more "beautiful" results.
By calculating the multiple photos of photography, AI sighting carries out stylized color grading to solve hardware defects and raise the upper limit of mobile phone photography.
"Beauty" is actually more subjective and difficult to quantify, but mobile phone manufacturers still want to define good looks through AI algorithms.
The combination of traditional and distinctive image brands is one of the common practices, Leica's "Deweier", Zeiss's "oil", Hasselblad's "color" all appear on the mobile phone, trying to let users simply complete the more beautiful presentation of photos.
In addition, regarding the "shadow tone", the current algorithm is also more mature, for the night is not simply to increase the brightness, for the safflower green leaves are no longer "crazy" coloring, the application of the algorithm is more degree.
Custom ISPs expand the above fine-tuning of the tone of the film, and narrow the distance between ordinary people and "photography".
From the very beginning of the shooting, to the good shooting, and now the simple presentation of "professional-grade" film tone, beauty, and even AI-assisted composition, it has raised the mobile phone image to a higher level.
While traditional cameras are still pursuing pixels, outsoles and specialized parameters, smartphone manufacturers have begun to lower the threshold of photography and "preach" to ordinary people.
Why is it necessary?
There are two points of view. While traditional camera manufacturers are increasing their pixels, the overall data throughput of the sensor is also greatly improving.
While there is a faster burst of shooting, shunshi also brings higher video performance. But this may not be available to all users.
Many people will think that the performance of the so-called 8K and 6K videos is not what they need, and they think that manufacturers should pay more attention to "static".
The other is mobile phone photography, which believes that the mobile phone image is seriously rolled, but its own needs are only to scan the code and shoot PPT, do not want to pursue the so-called color, light and shadow, shadow tone, the same for their own needs, the manufacturers' approach is too "overflowing".
But in fact, these two ideas are somewhat one-sided. The improvement of video performance of traditional images is actually an inevitable process of sensor performance development.
Faster burst speeds, higher pixels, and better autofocus are actually complementary to video performance, all of which are the advantages of high sensor speed.
▲ The QR code can be recognized without being in the frame (the actual speed is faster than the GIF)
The development of mobile phone imaging, in addition to the traditional "photography" field, also has a help for scanning codes and shooting PPT.
Scanning the code is actually a typical AI recognition algorithm blessing process, now the camera can quickly identify the two-dimensional code, and lock through the "hybrid zoom", and then cooperate with a certain algorithm for noise reduction recognition.
In this way, the process of scanning the code is faster and more accurate, and there is no need to walk back and forth or fill the light.
The same is true for shooting PPT, but mobile phone manufacturers have also set up the function of "shooting documents" in the native camera, when the AI recognizes the text or PPT, it will open correction and recognition, and after shooting, the corresponding text can also be extracted to become an electronic version.
In addition, the pursuit of images also allows users to have a more obvious perception of scientific and technological progress, and the performance of recording is stronger. For manufacturers, imaging is also a point that is easier to publicize.
▲ Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, Leitz Phone 1, iPhone 12 Pro Max. Image credit: XDA
The most typical example is that huawei's cooperation with Leica has improved the image performance and taste of Huawei products, while also laying the foundation for Huawei products to become the "first echelon" in the high-end market.
With the advent of the 4G and 5G eras, the boom of mobile Internet has been triggered, and people are more willing to record or share through static and dynamic images.
▲ From the world, individuals recorded a day's trivia, and finally edited and spliced "Floating Life Day". Image credit: IMDb
As the main internet traffic entrance, better image performance is already an inevitable demand for the development of smart phones.
Only the camera that is taken out is a good camera, although it was a joke at the beginning, but for now, the smartphone is the "camera" that many people take out.
▲ Image courtesy of digital-photography
It was originally a suitable recording tool for people, although for better image performance, the image module behind the mobile phone is getting larger and larger, and the weight has also increased, but these specifications and configurations have brought great convenience to daily use, and even brought a higher level of creative ability.
Continuous image wars, so that the lower limit of mobile phone image is still recorded casually, but the upper limit is constantly improving, it is very necessary.