Less than a year has passed since the presentation of the Samsung ISOCELL HP2 sensor and the 200-megapixel HP3, and several smartphones are already using these chips, but using them only as main sensors. According to the Korean company, however, the situation should change soon.
In a long post published on Samsung’s official blog, the manufacturer states that its 200 megapixel camera sensors can also be used as telephoto lenses. To explain its vision, Samsung has released the two photographs found below: the one on the left presents a significant distortion of the subject as it was taken from close range with the main camera which has a focal length of 24mm and a field of view of approximately 84 degrees. Such distortionexplains Samsung, is due to the short distance between the subject and the camera and “as the 3D shape of the human face is projected onto the 2D image sensor, the center of the face is extended due to the relative distance from the camera” due to what is called “extension distortion”.
To avoid this, the 200 megapixel ISOCELL cameras arrive which they can also be excellent for taking portraits with 2x or 3x zoom, offering good bokeh quality and good details thanks to the in-sensor crop zooming feature. Additionally, a 200MP wide-angle main camera can capture images with less distortion in zoom mode.
Samsung gives the example of the ISOCELL HP2 and HP3 which have 1/1.3 and 1/14 inch sensors. Most current generation high-end smartphones feature 1/2.76 or 1/3 inch telephoto lenses with 5x or 10x optical zoom lenses. Their chips also offer 2x and 4x in-sensor zoom capabilities without loss of detail thanks to the algorithm that rearranges color pixels in a Bayer RGB pattern, which allows a 200MP sensor to maintain 12.5MP at 1x zoom /2x/4x without loss of detail. L
