So, once again, a few months after Apple announces its new hardware, another company announces its release of similar / competitive hardware (and we haven't even heard from Samsung yet!).
But that doesn't mean that they are similar or competitive with the iPhone -- because -- they lack the iPhone's main attraction: Apple's ecosystem -- that runs the gamut from perpetual support for any issues (via AppleCare+) through unmatched privacy and security, all the way to integration with other Apple products such as the Apple Watch that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Apple not only integrates seamless hardware and software but leverages its entire corporate structure and other products to make each product far more than a chunk of hardware.
Bayer... as in Bayer filter. An RGB pattern filter over the camera's sensor. One color filter per pixel... Red, Green, or Blue. The image colour data is captured and interpolated for the neighbouring pixels to produce a full colour image. Virtually all commercial colour sensors employ a Bayer filter solution otherwise you would require three sensors to be used... one per colour. Not easily implemented in such compact environments as a beam splitting prism would be required too. Creator of the Bayer filter.... Bryce Bayer... who worked with Eastman Kodak. Died in 2012 I believe.
Sure, but the Bayer pattern is naturally a tiled series of squares with two green, one red, one blue photosite per four pixels. Lines up nicely with Pentile display subpixel arrangements. So what in the world is "Quad Bayer"?
Did a little research, and it turns out it's a Sony variant of the normal Bayer pattern. They turn each photosite into four separate, smaller photosites, then average their values as a way of reducing amplification noise. Thus, the "50 megapixels" is a lie. It has 50 million photosites, but they operate in clusters of four, producing one output pixel value which is still only one channel. It's the equivalent of a 12.5 megapixel sensor.
Still no idea what Octa PD is supposed to be.
Can't the sensor output at full 'resolution'?
Pixel binning to lower megapixel counts is common nowadays but I thought the option was still there to output without pixel binning.
Yes, you are right. The sensor can output at full resolution as well.
Ish. You can get a file out of it with 50 million pixels, but the resolving power is physically limited to about 13 megapixels even in that mode. Setting aside diffraction for the moment, due to how the same-color photosites are clustered (dense, then a gap, then dense, then a gap), they could never capture contrast data in the different channels to provide 50 megapixel level sharpness.
But in reality, we can't set diffraction aside. With an f/1.85 lens at smartphone lens distances, the Airy disk diameter is 2.37µm or larger. The pixels on that sensor are 1.2µm, so any given Airy disk covers four of them. They physically can't resolve separate detail.
Which is actually a good thing, as if they could resolve separate data, you would need a more serious antialiasing filter to make sure they couldn't. The main advantage of Quad Bayer sensors seems to be that they don't need as much optical antialiasing to avoid horrible Moiré.
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But in reality, we can't set diffraction aside. With an f/1.85 lens at smartphone lens distances, the Airy disk diameter is 2.37µm or larger. The pixels on that sensor are 1.2µm, so any given Airy disk covers four of them. They physically can't resolve separate detail.
Which is actually a good thing, as if they could resolve separate data, you would need a more serious antialiasing filter to make sure they couldn't. The main advantage of Quad Bayer sensors seems to be that they don't need as much optical antialiasing to avoid horrible Moiré.