iPhone 15 rumored to get advanced image sensor from Sony

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone
Sony will reportedly supply Apple with an image sensor for the iPhone 15 that is said to reduce over- and under-exposure.

iPhone 14 Pro camera
iPhone 14 Pro camera


A report on Monday from Nikkei claims that Sony will bring its photography smarts to the iPhone. This would put them in direct competition with Samsung, who already supplies image sensors to Apple.

Sony's advanced sensor allegedly nearly doubles the saturation signal level in each pixel compared to current sensors. As a result, it's said to capture more light and reduce overexposure or underexposure in specific settings.

One benefit this brings is photographing a person's face in precise detail when the background is brightly lit, such as on a sunny day. Sony achieved this with a new semiconductor architecture that places photodiodes and transistors in separate substrate layers, resulting in a higher-density layer.

Sony has experience in manufacturing image sensors, with a 44% global share in CMOS sensors in 2021, edging out Samsung, which placed second at 18.5%. But the company hopes to capture a 60% market share by 2025, a target it first announced in 2019.

Apple could incorporate the Sony sensor across the entire iPhone 15 lineup or limit it to the Pro models. Those models may end up having exclusive features either way, such as Thunderbolt connectivity and solid-state buttons for power and volume.

Currently, one photographic rumor for the iPhone 15 is a periscope camera. It would bring better optical zoom to the smartphone lineup by using a folding camera system to put more space between the lens and the sensor -- and perhaps reduce the camera bump on the back of the phone.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    jdwjdw Posts: 1,337member
    AppleInsider said:
    Currently, one photographic rumor for the iPhone 15 is a periscope camera. It would bring better optical zoom to the smartphone lineup by using a folding camera system to put more space between the lens and the sensor -- and perhaps reduce the camera bump on the back of the phone.
    How does "more space" for a periscope camera equate to a "reduced camera bump"?

    Don't get me wrong though.  I'm all for such a camera, regardless of the bump.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 10
    retrogustoretrogusto Posts: 1,111member
    By flipping the structure of the optics by 90 degrees, you can increase the focal length by expanding the structure from, say, the top towards the bottom of the phone, or from side to side, instead of from the front to the back, so you don’t need to increase the phone’s thickness to increase its focal length. 
    waveparticledoozydozenwilliamlondonFileMakerFellermuthuk_vanalingamdarkvaderappleinsideruserwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 10
    waveparticlewaveparticle Posts: 1,497member
    retrogusto said:
    By flipping the structure of the optics by 90 degrees, you can increase the focal length by expanding the structure from, say, the top towards the bottom of the phone, or from side to side, instead of from the front to the back, so you don’t need to increase the phone’s thickness to increase its focal length. 
    Excellent! So an optical zoom of 10 or even 100 can be easily done and there is no bump!
    darkvaderwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 10
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    I do hope they can make the camera bump go away somehow. 
    darkvaderwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 10
    hmlongcohmlongco Posts: 537member
    The bump won't go away. This will in all likelihood be like other phones with roughly a 50MP main camera, an ultra wide, and the periscope camera replacing the telephoto.
    muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 10
    baconstangbaconstang Posts: 1,107member
    I wonder what Apple could come up with if they put all their computational photography chops into making a 'real' camera, with interchangeable lenses and such...
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 10
    darkvaderdarkvader Posts: 1,146member
    baconstang said:
    I wonder what Apple could come up with if they put all their computational photography chops into making a 'real' camera, with interchangeable lenses and such...
    A camera that doesn't work as well as current professional cameras and costs three times as much, probably.


  • Reply 8 of 10
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    It won’t eliminate the camera bump. Possibly it won’t even reduce it. There are three cameras remember. This would be used for one. And I hope we’ll never see a 100 times zoom. That would be a horrible quality lens. We see that on the cameras that have used one. Even a 10 times is pushing the limit.

    what I would love to see, eventually, is an ultra wide with a 10mm to 20mm zoom, about as much as we could get in an ultra wide zoom, which is the hardest to make. A 20 to 60 mm zoom for the main camera, and a 60 to 240mm for the tele. That’s all reasonable. That would give a really wide range, with high quality optics, which Apple has been moving to over the past three years.

    imwould also like to see high quality tele and ultra wide sensors, possibly somewhat larger and 24MP. That would make a huge difference. And if they could have the room for better stabilization for the tele, it would help a lot, particularly at the longer end of the zoom, which other smartphone zooms don’t have.
    JaiOh81watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 10
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    darkvader said:
    baconstang said:
    I wonder what Apple could come up with if they put all their computational photography chops into making a 'real' camera, with interchangeable lenses and such...
    A camera that doesn't work as well as current professional cameras and costs three times as much, probably.


    Well, I’ve been using the main camera at 48MP Pro RAW since September, and the quality of the photos are surprisingly good. In fact, a couple of pro camera channels have done comparison photos, and this one holds up well against the top cameras from Canon, Nikon and Sony. Since smartphone sensors and even lenses are moving faster than larger formats in generations, it’s not that hard to believe that in another two to four years, the difference will be fairly minimal. Right now, this camera takes better photos than 4:3, and in some cases, better than APS-C. It’s the lens choices where it falls behind now.

    just remember that for years, CPU “experts” were saying that no ARM based processor would ever challenge Desktop CPUs. But that’s not true, is it?
    watto_cobrabaconstang
  • Reply 10 of 10
    retrogustoretrogusto Posts: 1,111member
    What I would like to see is a 50mm equivalent for the “main” camera, a ~135mm equivalent for the tele, and a 24 or 28mm equivalent for wide, all with top-quality sensors and stabilization. Those would all be really useful focal lengths.
    JaiOh81watto_cobrabaconstang
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