Recently, a number of mobile phones featuring images have been or will be released, and some mobile phones, although not the main camera, but also emphasize that they have a good image strength, so the discussion of mobile phone cameras on Sina Weibo has been in the ascendant. At the beginning of today's article, I would like to ask three questions about the "cliché" of the mobile phone main camera:
Is the CMOS bigger the better?
Is the higher the pixel, the better?
What kind of focal length is most suitable?
Let's briefly count which CMOS are currently used by the main cameras of each flagship model: respectively, the IMX707 used by the Xiaomi 12 Pro, the IMX766 that has been polished in the Euroga system for a long time, the Samsung GN5 used by the iQOO 9 Pro, the Samsung GNV used by the vivo X80 Pro, the IMX787 used by the Nubian Z40 Pro, and the Samsung GN2 that the Honor Magic 4 Ultimate Edition may use (here we will not mention Sony, Apple and Sharp).
It can be seen that in addition to the Samsung GN2 that is suspected to be the same model as Xiaomi 11 Ultra used in the Honor Magic 4 to the best version, it has reached 1/1.12", and the other main camera sizes are basically between 1/1.3" and 1/1.7", which is not enough to crown the title of "oversized bottom".
Even Huawei, which used to use the latest Sony CMOS for each new generation, has switched to the HUAWEI P50 Pro with a small CMOS multi-camera collaboration "super main camera unit".
Almost overnight, the manufacturers that once advertised the advantages of the oversized bottom camera have invariably changed their publicity strategies, which has to be said to be very intriguing.
So, is CMOS the bigger the bottom, the better?
From an optical point of view, there is no doubt that a larger CMOS can bring a higher amount of light transmission, which can lead to better low light and large light than HDR shooting capabilities.
However, just like the competition between APSC format, 135 full frame and 120 medium frame in the camera field for many years, the market finally chose the most preferred 135 full frame after the comprehensive volume and picture quality, the choice of mobile phone main camera not only needs to consider the advantages of the optical level, but also needs to consider the factors of internal stacking of the mobile phone, that is, the need to weigh the conflict between the thickness of the mobile phone and the quality of the camera.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra and the Honor Magic 4 Edition released this year, although the imaging capabilities are indeed strong, but the weight is close to 250g, a proper half-pound machine; coupled with the thickness of the oversized main camera optical module, it is real and thin.
And last year, when we evaluated the two models of Xiaomi, we also encountered a situation similar to the decline in image quality of the skewed shaft and edges, and at that time we guessed that it may be that the supply chain of the engineering machine has not yet had time to perfectly adapt to this size of CMOS. Although this problem has been solved from the retail version of the model later, it also reflects the difficulty of this type of CMOS tuning.
In contrast, the VIVO X80 Pro with a 1/1.3" main camera weighs 215g and the OPPO Find X5 Pro (leather version) with a 1/1.5" main camera weighs 195g, which is obviously much lighter than the three mobile phones with a larger bottom above.
So in my opinion, although the outsole CMOS of mobile phones has obvious advantages at the optical level, considering the internal stacking and the gripping experience of most users, the main CMOS of mainstream products will most likely be fixed in the range of 1/1.3" to 1/1.5".
Then the second question is, is the higher the pixel, the better?
This question should actually be discussed in conjunction with the first question above. At the end of 2019, the Xiaomi MI CC 9 Pro was officially released, and the first 108MP main camera led the high-pixel trend for a long time.
But now, the HMX used by Xiaomi CC 9 Pro has a significant gap with the current mainstream CMOS IMX766 in terms of color and speed, and in the case that mobile phone users mainly record and share as the main use scenarios, the high pixel of 108MP is really a bit wasteful.
At present, this batch of 50MP-level main cameras supports video shooting up to 8K specifications on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can output 12MP photos in four-in-one pixels, which is easier to store and share.
Therefore, by 2022, many manufacturers finally chose the main camera resolution of 50MP and 64MP, and Xiaomi also chose OV48C, Samsung GN2 and IMX707 CMOS in turn on its own image flagship, so I think the pixel of the main CAMERA CMOS should be more ideal at about 50MP.
But there is also an exception, and that is the 50MP CMOS JN1 launched by Samsung this year. This CMOS is only 1/2.75" of a small bottom, so the picture quality can only be described as barely visible, and its performance is second only to the number of lenses in my opinion, which is really difficult to say.
So this question will eventually be put together with the first problem, in my opinion, under the premise that the CMOS size is fixed in the range of 1/1.3" to 1/1.5", using 50MP or 64MP pixels is an ideal situation.
So let's look at the third question, what is the best focal length to choose?
Also because the space inside the mobile phone is scarce, the mobile phone manufacturers who are the pioneers in the field of camera miniaturization are also very aggressive when stacking the lenses of the optical module, so the general mobile phone manufacturers will take 24mm as the optimal solution to take into account the volume and viewing angle.
After years of cultivating the habits of mobile phone images, mobile phone users have generally adapted to the perspective of the 24mm main camera, and the supporting supply chain has also given priority to the relevant design around 24mm.
But! As a professional photographer, I actually really hate the 24mm perspective. So the release of the Nubia Z40 Pro made my eyes shine, and from my actual shooting experience, the 35mm main camera is also obviously better when used.
However, it is precisely because of the relatively longer focal length that Nubia can only choose the IMX787 with a size of only 1/1.7", which also leads to a certain gap in the main camera HDR and details compared to the new vivo machine with a larger bottom.
Of course, some people will ask, why doesn't the main camera consider 50mm? Under the current limitation of mobile phone thickness, 50mm can only use only 1/2.75" JN1 as the main camera, so it seems that it will not conflict with the main camera of 24mm or 35mm, so there has been no main camera to choose a 50mm mobile phone.
So in my opinion this problem should be divided into two situations.
Photographers like me, or photography enthusiasts who have been shooting with cameras for a long time, will definitely be relatively more inclined to the 35mm main camera.
For the average user, they will not be so aware of the change in perspective, so for these people to choose 24mm or 35mm is not much difference. In contrast, they may be more concerned about gaps in things like HDR.
So is the last choice of 24mm or 35mm? It's better to open your mind to this question.
I also want 35mm perspective, and I want the main camera to have a better picture quality, so why not consider the main camera to use 1/1.12" ~ 1/1.3" 24mm outsole, while learning Nubia to provide a special humanistic street shooting mode, on the basis of 24mm digital tailoring, providing 35mm field of view options?
It should be known that if the main camera size is 1/1.12", 24mm viewing angle, when cropped to 35mm viewing angle, it still provides about 1/1.63" of the photosensitive area, and the amount of light inlet even has certain advantages over the IMX787; if the main camera size is 1/1.3", there is also a 1/1.9" photosensitive area after cropping, and the difference between 1/1.7" is not much. Not to mention that users also have 24mm and 35mm options at once.
So I still can't understand why so many mobile phone manufacturers would rather provide a 2x crop with a serious drop in image quality on the basis of the 24mm main camera than provide a 1.5x crop that is obviously more practical in terms of integrated picture quality and perspective, with a high-quality 2x optical lens.
In general, I think that the most ideal state of the current mobile phone main camera should be cmOS size of about 1/1.3" ~ 1/1.5", pixels of 50MP, and the main camera is 24mm focal length on the basis of providing 35mm digital cut, so that both can ensure the thinness of the phone, but also have a good optical quality, coupled with the iteration of the supporting algorithm, is not it a beauty?