Comparing mobile phone imaging capabilities, from hardware to software
◎Reporter Liu Yan
Recently, every frame of the documentary series "Finding Our National Park" filmed by smartphones was premiered on the whole network. Netizens couldn't help feeling that the camera of the mobile phone is really too "rolling", and they have already begun to make movies.
Not long ago, the "multi-camera fusion computing photography technology" launched by Honor with much fanfare is the epitome of the continuous upgrading of mobile photography on the consumer side, from the development of competition hardware to competition software applications.
With the promotion of the underlying technology and the optimization of the application level as the main features, the imaging function of smartphones has gradually become an important weight for mobile phone manufacturers to compete for the high-end market and a weight indicator for measuring the value of mobile phones.
Mobile phone camera function is gradually becoming the focus of consumers
What do consumers pay most attention to when buying a mobile phone?
According to data, consumers are most concerned about the camera function of smartphones in 2020.
Thinking back more than 20 years ago, the main function of a mobile phone was just talking.
At that time, Qualcomm's current CEO Cristiano Amon took a photo.
In the photo, he held up many equipment such as camcorders, cameras, tape recorders, etc., just to illustrate one thing-a mobile phone is more than just a communication tool.
Now, all the things Anmeng held at the time were "stuffed" into the phone.
Also more than 20 years ago, Sharp introduced the world's first mobile phone with a built-in camera. Although only 100,000 pixels, it opened the way for camera phones.
In 2010, Apple's FaceTime video call function was unveiled with the release of iPhone 4, which promoted the development of the front camera and a substantial improvement in image quality. People's desire to take pictures and share was stimulated, and the image function has since become the standard configuration of mobile phones.
In 2016, Huawei and Leica jointly released the Huawei P9 mobile phone.
Since then, professional camera manufacturers have gradually become an important support for mobile phone manufacturers to hit the high-end market.
At the end of 2020, vivo and Zeiss will be co-branded. In March of this year, OnePlus teamed up with Hasselblad with a three-year investment of 1 billion, all in order to make mobile phones more professional in photography.
Smart phone cameras have also been upgraded from dual cameras to three cameras or even five cameras; pixels start from 10 million or even over 100 million; the location of the camera has also become diversified from "regular", and may even be moved to the side frame of the phone.
Break the bottleneck of smartphone imaging quality
However, in the matter of taking pictures, the most easily perceived by consumers is the pixels.
The major brands all use this to show their good consumers.
As smart phones become thinner and lighter, the contradiction between the sensor size and the thickness of the whole machine becomes more and more prominent. It is becoming more and more difficult for smart phone imaging hardware to break through physical boundaries, and the improvement of imaging quality has entered a bottleneck.
With the concept of computing photography proposed by Apple as a sign, mobile phone manufacturers have found new breakthroughs and competition points: by optimizing image algorithms, improving the shooting effects of specific objects, night scenes, etc., to meet people's shooting needs in different scenes. The competition has upgraded from hardware to soft power.
On September 22, Honor announced that it would be equipped with "multi-camera fusion computing photography technology" for its Magic3 series flagship machine, and the competition field of smartphone imaging function was once again disturbed.
Because according to Honor, the Honor Magic 3 series can greatly improve the imaging quality of the main camera without increasing the sensor size, directly hitting the pain points of the industry.
When brand manufacturers rack their brains to improve the comprehensive capabilities of smartphone hardware and software, the core role played by the chip that assumes the responsibility of the smartphone's brain becomes more and more important.
Hou Mingjuan, Qualcomm's global vice president, said: "The Snapdragon 888 5G flagship mobile platform is not as big as a thumb cover, but the computing power has surpassed the mainframe computers of a few years ago."
Limited by the size, the signal captured by the lens of the mobile phone is very poor. If you want to achieve the imaging effect comparable to that of the traditional imaging equipment such as SLR, you must rely on high-throughput calculations. The image signal processor is playing such a role to reduce noise, Brightness, chroma, and various distortion data are corrected to restore high-quality images.
Today, computational photography has evolved to support 8K, high-definition, high-quality, and high-dynamic shooting.
According to the explanation of Qualcomm’s technicians, in a processor, all the processor units such as image signal processor, central processing unit, graphics processor, AI engine, etc. can work together to achieve 8K real-time processing of 33 million pixels per frame, The requirement of 30 frames per second.
The computational throughput required by 8K technology has pushed processor power to its limit.
The advancement of image function is a collaborative innovation
The improvement of smartphone imaging capabilities is a systematic project, and it does not depend on the "uniqueness" of any link. The stagnation of any link may affect the progress of smartphone imaging functions.
"People usually describe the progress of mobile communication technology and industry in terms of'ten-year iteration'. However, technological progress has never stopped. The so-called daily triumph, bit by bit progress accumulates into qualitative change, and the same is true for the advancement of video technology." Hou Mingjuan told a reporter from Science and Technology Daily, "It needs to be emphasized that the advancement of smartphone imaging functions has benefited from the joint promotion of related industry chains and mutual promotion."
Bai Song, an independent analyst in the communications industry, said: "Currently, the imaging competition of smartphones has entered a competition between comprehensive strength and depth of research and development. This is a collaborative innovation at the hardware and software level represented by camera combinations."
Just like what Bai Song said, the realization and progress of smartphone imaging functions require a whole set of hardware and software to promote, no link can be delayed.
Bai Song said: "Although the comprehensive integration capabilities of software and hardware and the development capabilities based on the underlying chip technology of each company are different, the collaborative innovation results of the smart phone imaging system give brand manufacturers enough confidence to make their mobile phones able to shoot super The moon can also take a panoramic view of the Milky Way, and its imaging capabilities have become the main means for manufacturers to compete for the market and users."
In the release of "Multi-camera fusion computing photography technology", Honor CEO Zhao Ming revealed that the domestic market share of Honor mobile phones has risen to 16.2%.
This number is close to the highest level of Honor's historical market share, and it only took 3 months to recover from 3%. It is the Honor Magic3 series flagship machine that helps Honor to stabilize the low-tolerance territory of the high-end market.
The game of smartphone stacking and stacking parameters is hard to come to an end. The integration of hardware such as sensors and lenses with soft power such as AI algorithms will still be the direction of competition for mobile phone photography in the future.
But as Zhao Ming said, the essence of photography is to record and express. The competition in the mobile phone industry is not a game to reach the top, but the improvement of user experience.
Zhao Ming believes that the future development direction of mobile photography is to benchmark professional equipment in terms of basic image quality, to benchmark retouchers in scene optimization, and to benchmark photographers in expression creation. Only in this way can the user experience. "Noise" is getting smaller and smaller.
SLR is difficult to be replaced by mobile phones in a short time
The famous director Steven Soderbergh used 3 iPhone 7s to make a suspense thriller "Heartless".
Although he is not the first person to use a mobile phone to make a movie, as an Oscar-winning director, this film can be regarded as an important milestone in contemporary filmmaking, and it is a great endorsement and affirmation of the advancement of mobile imaging technology.
As Steven Soderbergh said in an interview: "I only need a few seconds to place the lens wherever I want." Replace traditional equipment with advanced and convenient mobile technology, and consume Side is a reality, but in the professional field, is it still a gimmick?
In fact, when Xu Jian, a famous wild animal photographer, received the shooting task of "Finding Our National Park", his first thought was that it was impossible to accomplish this task with a smartphone.
Photographing golden monkeys jumping in the woods, hospitable mothers who hunt and feed their babies, and Beibu Gulf leatherback tree frogs hiding in tree trunks... the performance of smartphones in various scenes exceeded the expectations of wild photographers such as Xu Jian.
Xu Jian told reporters: "You must have confidence in a smartphone, it can already produce the same effect as a blockbuster film."
Smartphones have been so powerful, but in Xu Jian's view, although mobile phone shooting is more flexible, SLR cameras are difficult to replace in a short time.
In the photography circle, there is a saying that "the bottom is big and the bottom is crushed to death, and the bottom is one inch of gold", and the "bottom" refers to the sensor.
Xu Jian said: “The imaging components of smartphones are only the size of a small fingernail or even smaller. They cannot be compared with large professional equipment such as SLRs. When the image quality requirements are very demanding, professional equipment must be used for shooting.”
He emphasized: "20 years ago, people even doubted the camera's auto focus technology. Many people insisted on using traditional manual focus. But now auto focus has become an indispensable function of the camera. It is difficult to say that tomorrow's smartphone imaging function will What, because technological progress is unpredictable."