In Japan, digital cameras were once considered a household necessity. However the story has changed in the past few years, and smartphones have played a significant role here.

According to a survey conducted by the Japanese Cabinet Office by the end of 2023, only 48.6% of households in the country owned digital cameras. This is the first time since 2004 that the percentage has fallen below 50%. Reportedly, compact cameras are suffering the most. The graphical representation below shows the declining adoption rate of digital cameras in Japan over the years, compared to the increasing adoption of smartphones.

People are willing to trade some superior qualities for an unprecedented accessibility

Over the years, the evolution of smartphone camera systems, combined with easy access to the internet and the ability to share images on social media, has shifted people’s choice for fulfilling their imaging needs. Additionally, a smartphone’s computational photography tricks also make it easier for users to capture good photos without much effort. The most noticeable element in a recent flagship smartphone such as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra or the Oppo Find X7 Ultra is their camera system.

To top it off, the superior qualities of images captured by dedicated cameras often require trained eyes to be noticed.

The decline in the adoption of digital cameras in Japan has also been confirmed by the Japan International Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA). According to data, the shipment has dropped from 11.11 million units in 2008 to 910,000 units at present. Besides affecting the camera manufacturers, it has also affected the country’s overall competitiveness in the space.

Japan’s home appliance industry is also facing competition. According to the country’s Home Appliances Association, the production of goods in Japan has continued to decline over the past decade, from 7.7 trillion yen in 2000 to 3.8 trillion yen in 2022.

The value of the country’s imports of video recording and playback equipment has reportedly exceeded the value of exports. Specifically, in 2023, the trade balance showed that Japan imported 72.5 billion yen more of this equipment than it exported.

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(Source | via)

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Sony might not be as big of a smartphone brand as it used to be years ago but the company is still making premium phones with some of the best camera features and now the Japanese company is hinting at further improvements.

A new report coming from Nikkei indicates that Sony believes its breakthrough technologies will see smartphones match and even overtake the capabilities of DSLR and mirrorless cameras in a couple of years.

Terushi Shimizu, President and CEO of Sony Semiconductor Solutions (SSS) said during a recent briefing that “still images will exceed the image quality of single-lens reflex cameras within the next few years.” A presentation during the briefing points to 2024 as the timeline where Sony sees that smartphones could exceed ILC image quality.

It will be interesting to see how Sony manages to live up to this claim. The company has already launched Xperia Pro I with a 1-inch 20MP camera sensor but the premium smartphones from the brand typically use a 12MP sensor due to distance constraints between the lens and sensor.

But, even if the camera sensors for smartphones can’t become big to rival APS-C cameras, smaller sensors will be able to capture much more light in the near future. While it is not known when exactly will this happen for smartphones but the technology has already appeared in Sony’s flagship mirrorless cameras.

The company also talks about the growth in the AI processing capabilities that pushes the boundaries of multi-frame HDR, longer-range zoom, and higher-quality video recording.

There has not been a major development in terms of camera technology for the past few integrations of smartphone cameras, which is mostly because the companies have reached the saturation point. But it will be interesting to see how the camera technology for smartphones keeps pushing the boundaries.

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Zeiss Group, the Germany-based company that manufactures optical electronics and optical products, is now looking to expand its footprints in the mobile market as the demand for imaging technology is surging.

The German company is known for making eyeglass lenses, binoculars, and camera lenses. In an effort to further expand its presence in the smartphone camera market, Zeiss China, the local subsidiary, has partnered with Chinese smartphone maker Vivo and launched Vivo X60 series phones.

Smartphone makers are now partnering with optical image sensor makers to enhance the camera performance of their devices. This is being done to offer a unique feature and highlight the photography experience, a feature that has now become a make-or-break deal type for many users worldwide.

Maximilian Foerst, President and Managing Director of Zeiss China says that the company is committed to developing mobile imaging technologies as it sees great potential in the extremely dynamic market. He further adds that mobile imaging technology will be a key differentiator and an important driver of the mobile market worldwide.

Vivo and Zeiss are also establishing a joint Research & Development program which would be known as Vivo ZEISS Imaging Lab. It will be focused on developing innovative solutions for mobile imaging technology. Also, the program will oversee the joint development and co-engineering of optical components that would feature on Vivo flagships.

Zeiss previously had a partnership with Nokia for its smartphone cameras which is now defunct. Similarly, Huawei has a partnership with Leica while OnePlus recently established a partnership with Hasselblad. Samsung is reportedly tying up with Olympus for enhancing the camera experience on its upcoming flagship smartphones.

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Nikon Corp is set to end the production of camera bodies in Japan by the end of this year, as per officials. The news arrives as the company is seeing a decline in sales caused by the improving capabilities of smartphones in photography.

The camera making giant will be transferring production from its plant in Miyagi Prefecture, which is a part of its new structural reform. Its camera body production will then shift from its sole domestic camera production site to a major factory in Thailand. As per a company official, “The quality level of our products can be sustained even if they are made overseas.”

For those unaware, Nikon has been leading the camera industry since the launch of its first camera back in 1948. But since then, the company has been struggling due to intensifying competition in recent years. Especially with the entry of smartphones that have played a major role in the decline of the digital camera market, with improvements in smartphone camera technology shortening the gap in performance with digital cameras.

The company added that it will maintain employment at the factory by continuing the production of certain camera components and distributing the works to growth sectors such as health care and sensors. Similarly, the camera maker is also planning on shutting down two factories in Yamagata and Fukushima prefectures as well, which are responsible for the processing of removable lens parts for digital cameras.

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A few days ago, Samsung officially launched its latest Galaxy S21 series smartphones in the market in three different models — Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and the top-end Galaxy S21 Ultra with notable differences in the specifications and features.

One interesting difference between these devices is the slow-motion video feature. While the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus support 960fps super slow-mo video recording, the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which packs an upgraded camera, doesn’t support it natively.

In the footnote of the smartphone’s specs sheet, the South Korean giant reveals that the smaller S21 models can record 960 fps natively while the Galaxy S21 Ultra relies on digital interpolation to enhance 480fps video to 960fps.

Now, in a response to Android Policy regarding this, Samsung has confirmed that the larger sensor in the phone is responsible for the difference in performance. The larger image sensor operates at a slower shutter speed when recording video and instead of artificially limited smaller phones, the company opted to offer 960fps recording support and use frame rate conversion technology on the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

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The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra features a 12MP f/2.2 Dual Pixel AF ultrawide sensor with a 120-degree field of view, a 108MP f/1.8 0.8µm camera with OIS and PDAF, a 10MP f/2.4 Dual Pixel camera with OIS and 3x optical zoom, and a 10MP Dual Pixel AF periscope zoom camera with OIS and 10x optical zoom.

On the front side, the device comes with a 40MP f/2.2 sensor with PDAF for taking selfies and video calling. The phone also has support for 4K 60fps video recording with all five of its cameras and the device also brings 100X Space Zoom support.

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OnePlus has slowly progressed from making “flagship killer” smartphones to flagship phones but it still lacks some top-notch features that we usually find in premium smartphones from other brands.

While the OnePlus smartphones are widely appreciated, its flagship phones have mostly been criticized for the camera department, which has not been able to match the performance offered by its competitors. But now that is about to change this year.

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has taken to Weibo to say that the company is investing heavily in cameras this year and is aiming to be a leader in this department. While nothing much is known about this, it’s likely that the company will be focusing more on the software part.

Given that the OnePlus 9 series is all set to launch in the coming months, we don’t expect to see huge improvements in terms of camera performance because of this new investment from the company. However, the OnePlus 9T series, which will launch in the second half of this year, is expected to have improved camera technology.

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OnePlus is also reportedly partnering with lens maker Leica, which has been collaborating with Huawei. This could be what the company needs given that Huawei’s flagship smartphones have always been a leader in terms of camera performance.

Meanwhile, the upcoming OnePlus 9 series is expected to offer three devices — OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro, and OnePlus 9 SE (or 9 Lite). This time, the company is also going to offer wireless charging and reverse wireless charging among other premium features.

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Samsung has been making impressive progress when it comes to camera technology, being the first to launch a few high-megapixel count sensors. Now, the company has an ambitious plan to make a camera sensor that goes beyond the human eye.

Earlier, Yongin Park, Executive Vice President of Samsung’s Sensor Business had expressed that the company could create a camera sensor that can go beyond the human eye, which in camera technology, said to have 576-megapixels.

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Now, it seems that Samsung has started working on the same. The South Korean giant is developing a 600-megapixel camera sensor which features 0.8µm pixels and is 1/.0.57″ big. But, the company has a long way to go as the current prototype takes up about 12 percent of the smartphone’s area and results in a 22mm bulge.

Samsung is really doing 600MP sensors! pic.twitter.com/vGgsfxsGGh

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) December 5, 2020

The company is reportedly looking to employ the ISOCELL pixel binning technology to keep the camera bump in check. However, before we see the 600MP camera, we expect to see sensors like 150MP and 250MP.

Samsung’s focus for such a high-megapixel count camera sensor isn’t just smartphone photography but much beyond that. It believes that the technology could have several other use-cases, such as in the medical field and agriculture.

The company is also expanding the categories of its camera sensors usage from smartphones. It is now planning to provide camera sensors for including autonomous vehicles (AVs), drones, and other IoT (Internet of Things) devices.

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It’s been a few weeks since Apple launched its new iPhone 12 series in the market and now reports about the next-generation smartphones from the tech giant, the iPhone 13 lineup, have already started surfacing online.

A report from DigiTimes (via sina) claims that Apple is now looking to cooperate with South Korean companies for the periscope lens as it is trying to strengthen the optical zoom performance on the upcoming iPhones.

While it has not been finalized yet but the report indicates that the partner companies for this could be Samsung. The South Korean giant has also used the periscope lens on its flagship smartphones, enabling a massive 100x zoom.

Currently, a few flagship smartphones in the market come with a periscope lens for better photography features, including the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, Huawei P40 Pro, Vivo X50 Pro+, OPPO Find X2 Pro, Huawei Mate40 Pro, and more.

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As of now, there’s no indication that both companies have reached a deal for this periscope lens. Even if both Apple and Samsung partner for this, it remains to be seen if the iPhone 13 series gets the feature or not.

Another interesting point going in favor of Samsung is that the South Korean giant has acquired Corephotonis that developed zoom technology for smartphones. The Israeli company had sued Samsung and Apple for patent infringement on telephoto zoom tech but as it has now been acquired by Samsung, the South Korean company holds the patents and Apple will have to partner to get the technology for its products.

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Vivo has scheduled a launch event in China on 1st June to launch its latest Vivo X50 smartphone. The company is expected to launch three smartphone in this lineup, including X50, X50 Lite, and X50 Pro.

Recently, the company had showcased the camera module of the upcoming flagship smartphone which features a triple-camera setup and will come with some advanced features to improve the photography experience. Today, Vivo has shared a new teaser video on its Weibo account which highlights the low-light photography features.

Thanks to micro-gimbal technology, it has improved shutter level for longer exposure which results in capturing larger amount of incoming light, thus the output offers a better low-light capabilities for the camera.

Previously, the company had confirmed that the X50 Pro features an ultra-large primary camera sensor with a focal length of 16-135mm and supports 5x optical zoom as well as 10x digital zoom. The company is also expected to be capable of 360-degree movements and offer anti-shake technology.

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The smartphone will also have a stable micro gimbal, similar to what we’ve seen on the Vivo APEX 2020 concept phone. It will allow the X50 to offer better stabilisation while shooting photos and videos than regular OIS systems.

A leaked image of the smartphone’s promotional material has revealed that the device will come with a punch-hole cutout in the top-left corner of the display for housing the front-facing camera sensor.

Currently, nothing much about the phone’s specifications is know. However, with a couple of weeks to go for the official launch, we expect the company to start sharing features and key specs on social media while pricing and availability details will be revealed on 1st June.

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Smartphone cameras have come a long way, ever since the first camera phone, the Kyocera VP-210 visual phone was announced back in 1999. Manufacturers are looking for new ways to differentiate their smartphones and cameras are often one of these features that makes a phone stand out. In the pursuit of differentiating a smartphone, manufacturers have started adding huge sensors on their phones and 48MP sensors have become the norm for a lot of flagships and mid-rangers. But now, smartphones with even 64MP sensors are coming our way in the next few months. So it begs the question: Are such large sensors necessary and useful?

According to Zeiss Group’s CEO & President Dr. Michael Kaschke, 40MP sensor is already more than enough for smartphones. While talking to the Indian Express, he explained that there are limits in terms of processing speeds, signal to noise ratio, and costs that put smartphone cameras already at its tipping point. According to his comments, anything over 40MP could be an overkill on smartphones given their limitations.

He further reveals that Zeiss Lens wants to focus more on products that cater to ‘professionals, semi-professionals, and artistic photographers’ rather than smartphones. However, he still wants to work with smartphone companies and currently has a partnership with HMD Global for its Nokia-branded devices. To recall, Zeiss and Nokia’s partnership dates back to the Nokia 95 days.

He adds that multiple sensor setup is the way to go for smartphones as it helps to enhance the photos as well as treat smartphones like a DSLR. However, he says for professional photography, consumers will look for professional cameras instead of smartphones.

What do you think? Will 64MP cameras be overkill for smartphones?

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(Source)

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Xiaomi recently released the flagship Mi 9 with a triple camera setup, its first phone with three rear shooters. This is China’s “Apple” keeping up with the trend in camera technology which has seen several OEMs release models with triple, quad and penta cameras. Seems Xiaomi will keep on slapping more sensors on its rear camera setup as it has announced a new partnership with Light, the company reputed to have developed the Nokia 9’s penta-camera setup.

Light claims it is the “world’s most advanced imaging platform” and the Nokia 9 PureView camera technology is a testament to that. The company rattled the industry when it released the Light L16 camera, which featured 16 cameras. Light’s technology combines 10 different images into a single super high-res photo.

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Xiaomi becomes the third OEM to partner with Light after Nokia and Sony. Zhu Dan, VP of Xiaomi’s smartphone camera division has this to say; “We are thrilled to partner with Light to leverage their advanced imaging solutions for our future devices.” He went further to disclose that the company works tirelessly to remain at the forefront of smartphone innovation and that perfecting smartphone photography was a key focus for the Chinese phone maker. No mention was made of the project the company was working on but we expect something out of the ordinary.

(source)

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ZTE and Red Bull has cooperate to built the smartphone, while the Red Bull is the one of Energy Drink that now becoming the ZTE partner in the advertising business.

And now we have a couple of picture that taken by ZTE smartphone, that phone is known as ZTE V5. Those phone will packs with 13 megapixel camera with f/2.1 aperture, and the sample picture below is shows that has 6MB file size, it’s mean the phone can process the high definition image with detail pixel.

The ZTE V5 is powered by 2400 mAh battery capacity, working at 4G network and running with Nubia 2.0 user interface, the phone will be offered with a thousand price tag.

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