Surprise Photo

[MsNomer]

Forgive me for bragging, but yesterday as we were crossing Kansas on I-70, a storm crept up and the lighting turned to gold. While MrNomer dealt with cross wind, I turned in my seat and snapped a shot with my iPhone. I was surprised that it went into night mode with a 3-second shutter. I was even more surprised that this was the result.

[GeorgeRa]

Benefit of 360-degree view for driving or camping. Wow, 3 seconds shot, I can see it possible with optical stabilization if you lucky, perhaps your phone has one.

[MsNomer]

Yes, stabilization. IPhone 12+. I had no idea it was that good.

[GeorgeRa]

The very new Sharp Aquos R6 phone has 1” (8.8mmx13.2mm) sensor, largest sensor ever in a smartphone. The sensor is likely from Sony and Summicron optics from Leica.

https://thenextweb.com/news/sharp-1-...-display-phone
https://www.dpreview.com/news/670069...summicron-lens

Unfortunately, no plans for US. It likely has some kind of image stabilization but likely not sensor shift due to size.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

Benefit of 360-degree view for driving or camping. Wow, 3 seconds shot, I can see it possible with optical stabilization if you lucky, perhaps your phone has one.

The iPhone 12 Pro goes a LONG way beyond sensor-motion image stabilization. You can set night mode for up to 30 second exposures, and the sensor (which I believe is stationary) continually collects light and then stitches it all together pixel-by-pixel in software, compensating for motion using special neural-net hardware and machine learning. It is somewhat analogous to the long-available "HDR" feature and "image stacking", which take multiple exposures at different "apertures" and stitches pieces of the image together to optimize contrast and depth of field. It will of course do better if the camera is steady, and there is only so much it can do about moving subjects in dark situations. But, besides that, it can tolerate even large movements--throwing away anything too extreme to use and squeezing every last bit of information out of what's left.

It then analyzes the image 6 ways to Sunday, tweaking things pixel-by-pixel. It even detects earth vs sky and treats them separately. The contrast adjustment is so good that you can take pictures with the full sun in the image and still get decent results.

The iPhone 12 Pro is hands-down the best camera of any kind I have every used. SO and I have stopped even carrying our very expensive and bulky DSLR.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by avanti

The iPhone 12 Pro goes a LONG way beyond sensor-motion image stabilization. You can set night mode for up to 30 second exposures, and the sensor (which I believe is stationary) continually collects light and then stitches it all together pixel-by-pixel in software, compensating for motion using special neural-net hardware and machine learning. It is somewhat analogous to the long-available "HDR" feature and "image stacking", which take multiple exposures at different "apertures" and stitches pieces of the image together to optimize contrast and depth of field. It will of course do better if the camera is steady, and there is only so much it can do about moving subjects in dark situations. But, besides that, it can tolerate even large movements--throwing away anything too extreme to use and squeezing every last bit of information out of what's left.

It then analyzes the image 6 ways to Sunday, tweaking things pixel-by-pixel. It even detects earth vs sky and treats them separately. The contrast adjustment is so good that you can take pictures with the full sun in the image and still get decent results.

The iPhone 12 Pro is hands-down the best camera of any kind I have every used. SO and I have stopped even carrying our very expensive and bulky DSLR.

Apple is very well known for advances in computational photography and discussion between large sensors community and smartphone photography will continue for a while.

I use Motorola phone; it has decent camera but it doesn’t come close to a full format sensor. I dumped my DSLR a while back and switch to mirrorless Olympus first and a few years ago to Sony FF. There is a limit how much you can improve the image by adding multiple images with AI massage. Bokeh artifacts is a good example when large aperture lens is just unbeatable, no artifacts on the border with sharp parts of the image.

Shooting portraits, I extensively use eye autofocus with Sony, I think phones are limited to face tracking due to sensor size, I could be wrong.

This is good write up for iPhone 12 pro max. It has sensor-based image stabilization.

https://www.dxomark.com/apple-iphone...and-beautiful/

[avanti]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

There is a limit how much you can improve the image by adding multiple images with AI massage.

we'll see...
I remember when my serious photography friends were insisting that digital could never equal film.

Shooting portraits, I extensively use eye autofocus with Sony, I think phones are limited to face tracking due to sensor size, I could be wrong.

The 12 Pro uses their new lidar sensor for autofocus. Pretty great mostly, but I think they still have work to do to deliver the full potential.

This is good write up for iPhone 12 pro max. It has sensor-based image stabilization.

Thanks for this. I hadn't heard that they were still working on mechanical image stabilization. I somehow got the impression that they were abandoning it. Guess not.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by avanti

we'll see...
I remember when my serious photography friends were insisting that digital could never equal film.
.

Indeed, time will tell, but film is still useful especially with large negatives. This is a good test for the dynamic range between Nikon D750 and 100ASA film. It is close. https://petapixel.com/2019/05/02/fil...ange-compares/

Originally Posted by avanti

we'll see...
The 12 Pro uses their new lidar sensor for autofocus. Pretty great mostly, but I think they still have work to do to deliver the full potential.
.

I am not sure LIDAR can help in focusing on an eye, even animal eye these days. It can help defining foreground and background better for improved Bokeh. Sony using FF sensors image info with mirrorless technology mastered human eye focusing, see this bird eye tracking. It is impressive. Try to do this with a phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwzVy75W1-0

[avanti]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

I am not sure LIDAR can help in focusing on an eye, even animal eye these days.

I'm not sure either, but eye measurement is a big part of facial recognition, which was the very first use of lidar in phones.

But we digress...