Since the dawn of digital cameras, the megapixel has been the one stat that camera manufacturers and uneducated consumers identified with quality. Sure, back in 2003, the difference between 1.3MP and 3MP was astounding, but in recent years, its became much more arbitrary. With phones like the Nokia Lumia 1020 sporting a 40+MP sensor, is the war back upon us? If so, how can we kill it?
The Nokia Lumia 1020 has gotten a lot of attention since its announcement. People from both sides have came out of the woodwork to express their opinions on this phone/camera combo. As a result, Sony recently teased the public with their latest phone, the i1 Honami, which is harnessing a 20 MegaPixel camera. All accounts seem to show that a mobile version of the freshly dead megapixel war is upon us, so what can we do to swiftly end it?
First, we must talk about far more important features. Magic Lantern recently enabled 14 stops of dynamic range to the Canon 5d Mark III and Canon 7d, a statistic that is going to improve image quality far more than a pixel density count on the sensor will. Essentially, dynamic range is just a figure to determine how much detail is able to be captured in the shadows and highlights in your images (It’s far more complicated than that, but lets not give a science lesson here). By in large, dynamic range stops is a statistic far more useful than mega pixels ever will be.
Secondly, memory is going to be a far bigger issue than ever. With phone companies slowly ditching expandable memory, consumers are going to run into a very real problem with these large image producing cameras. The test photo released by Nokia last week, is 13 MBs in size. That is less than 700 images on an EMPTY 16gb card before being completely full. Like most people, I have images on my phone from a year and a half ago. Changes like this will force us to change the entire dynamic we have with our smart phone cameras.
Third, is the pixel density of such a camera. While the sensor is still larger than most any other sensor we've seen for a cell phone, it still lacks the size it needs to accommodate that much pixel density. Canon for example, didn't produce a large mega pixel camera with their release of the Canon 5d Mark III because the tech didn't feel ready for them. If a camera with a three times the sensor size of the Nokia Lumia 1020 doesn't feel ready for the 40+ MP range, what makes you think a camera phone will be able to do it with any success whatsoever? The sample photos for the 1020 had a decidedly "finger-painted" quality to them when zoomed at 100%. This was a direct result of over shooting the capable pixel density for a sensor that size.
Finally, we must address the practicality of it. In 2011, HTC released the first 3d phone. It contained a 3d enabled screen, and 5MP dual lens 3D camera on the back. Everyone was buzzing, claiming this was the future, and the concept inevitably flopped because it simply wasn't practical. So far in fact, that even ESPN has recently ended their 3D enabled networks, claiming that the market simply wasn't there. A 41MP sensor on a phone falls under that same discussion. Instagram is going to take that photo, and shrink it to 500px by 500px. Facebook will surely reduce it to around 1300px long edge. So where is the practical purposes of such a camera?
Phones aren't designed to be your best camera. If I want to take a quality photo to use for my portfolio or otherwise, I will always use my DSLR. If I want to take a photo to show friends and family what I'm doing at this very moment, I'll use my cell phone. This is the common separation that companies such as Nokia haven't seemed to figure out. A cell phone camera needs to have personality, not over compressed image sensor highlighting its latest gimmick. By their very nature, they need to be designed to best show a glimpse into our daily lives, and megapixels don't mean a thing in my day to day life, especially when they end up hindering you. By creating phones with features of this nature, you're creating a comparison to much higher end DSLRs and I think we can all agree that we don't want to travel down that road.
Congratulations to fstoppers for the nice traffic this produced. I bet the author knew that Nokia didn't want a megapixel war. The MP count is just a consequence of providing zoom to a smartphone without the bulk of glass/lens.
How many people do you know that own a Nokia phone? Exactly.
More than you'd think. But I also work in software development. All the geeks (30+) in the office use Windows Phone. Just sayin'.
I'm all for lower megapixels in smart phones and other devices, and higher megapixels in professional cameras. That way the guy who posts his fishing trip snaps to Facebook won't suddenly become a candidate to shoot his cousin's wedding.
I don't get the mega-pixel war to begin with- surely what the person behind the camera are more important than the sensor, which I think I proved in college course ironically recently- I came top of my year and well my camera a) was the oldest b) had the least megapixels c) wasn't full-frame - 35mm d) and used lenses which weren't necessarily top of the range and yet out of the members in class my images came out top- though x_x seems I made enemies with the queen b whom was trouting her 5D MII like it made her a goddess (let's just say I accidentally wounded that person's ego purely by getting better grades...). The interesting fact behind this scenario is that the person with the pro camera had to get me to teach them how to use it at the beginning of the year, well how to change to mode off auto to manual and adjusting the shutter and aperture for her (which was odd as I have near to no exp with canon's, why she asked I'll never know)>- tho her situation was the same as the majority- seems most of them lived on auto everything- which is crazy...as far as I was aware running about crazily papping everyone was not part of the course ~_~
But anyway as I was saying- comments about equipment etc seems futile if the person behind the thing has no clue how to work it and get the most out of it- that and when you consider some of the greatest photographer's such a Julia Margaret Cameron used equipment that today would be laughed at for being noddy (and personally to me her photos look like they could have been taken today). If anything knowing what visually works and what settings work best for the camera you have is far more important- kind of doubting anyone uses the megapixels 100% these days unless they create images which are to be printed on to billboards for a living...
I think the best thing about phones with large sensors is their versatility. If i'm out, i can take a great photo with my phone (13mp S4). It has great dynamic range and wonderful sharpness - nothing compared to my DSLR but workable for ME. When i send that image, it downsizes to MMS, so Jaron, don't worry about your sext messages if the sender has a phone made in the last 5 years. When i upload it to Facebook or instagram, it downsizes but the base image remains the same. When i download that file (usually not more than a couple megs tops) I can make a beautiful print for my parents or family of the photo that i took of them on the spot. The REAL issue here is how many MP can you pack in and still be effective. There's a point at which there's too many cooks in the kitchen and image quality or performance suffers. Packing 41 MP into a chip to fit in a cellphone - you're gonna get more issues than benefits. I think a Cellphone chip right now is, tops, capable of 20 MP but that's pushing it. It's not total megapixels, it's megapixels on the size of the chip. There's a happy medium
How about not make it a war anymore, and focus on creating better photos?
I see this as a boon for the ATT's and Verizon's of the world. Larger image files means more cost to consumer, when they use the network to post it to FB or email Grandma. And don't even get me started about the 'optics' in these camera/phone combos.
How did you come up with 700 images on a 16gb card? 700 x 13 = 9.1gb
Maf is hurd.
What these cell phone companies know is that the sales person in the store earning minimum wage will promote the phone as such, "Mr. Dayley you definitely should buy the Nokia over the Samsung. This phone has the best camera on the market. In fact it shoots better photos than those fancy cameras photographers carry around. It is AMAZING!" They find one feature like this and base their entire sales presentation on it.
I want to see a return of the Nokia N8 but with a larger sensor and Windows Phone 8. The sensor has to be of same size as in the 1020 and have the dynamic range though.
You know....you can use that 41 megapixels of the Lumia 1020 so you can zoom without loss...just saying since everyone is crying the amount of pixels of that phone and not investigating about the real thing...
Megapixels don't matter unless it's on a Samsung or an Apple... right?
It's funny to see how everybody wants to feel like an individual while they all get the same devices and immediately find excuses not to buy anything just a little bit different to whatever it is they got used too. (The human being is a creature of habits, whether one likes to admit it or not,)
To all Android and Apple hardcore fans, I just leave a verse from Arch Enemy and I hope your IQ is high enough to understand it:
"Stereotype fools. Playing the game. Nothing Unique. They all look the same.
In this Sea of Mediocrity I can be anything. Anything I want to be."
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