Megapixels in cameras. Why doesn't more always mean better? How many megapixels do you need for video surveillance What conclusion can we draw

If earlier a 5 megapixel camera was an expensive tool used for professional purposes, today it is a shooting tool available to everyone at a low price. In Moscow and other cities, video cameras with a resolution of 5 megapixels are used in the field of guarding houses, cottages, courtyards, remote video surveillance of objects, and surveillance in order to collect the most detailed information.

The image from a good 5 megapixel camera has high definition, the smallest details are visible on it, and when certain sections of the image are enlarged, there are no serious distortions, which opens up the possibility for multiple digital zoom and fine editing.

In the online store, buyers will find a large selection of 5mpx cameras at affordable prices. So you can buy a 5 megapixel video surveillance camera, at a price of 4000 rubles.

There are different camera options such as:

CCTV camera 5 megapixels;
5 MP camera with autofocus;
USB camera 5 MP;
5 megapixel mobile camera

and other models. In addition to the main type of device, the price and scope are determined by the technical characteristics.

Their list looks like this:

Shooting speed (number of frames per second).
Camera viewing angle in degrees. In this case, the camera may have a rotary mechanism that rotates the lens at the remote request of the user or when a motion sensor is triggered.
Camera mounting method. It is important what fasteners are used during installation, the connection method (wired or wireless), the strength of the fastening (protection against vandalism).
Limits of low and high temperatures at which the 5 MP camera can function normally.
Basic set details. Does it contain all the necessary fasteners, adapters, instructions for installing and operating the device.

The race for megapixels has gradually moved from digital photography to IP video surveillance. Our customers are increasingly asking for cameras of 3, 4, 5 megapixels and even higher. Most of them are absolutely sure that the higher the resolution, the more megapixels the camera has, the better it will show, the higher the frame detail will be. Manufacturers, to please consumers, produce cameras with high resolution, 12 megapixel IP cameras, which are now fashionable in 4K format, are already being sold with might and main.

We decided to find out - does the video quality of IP cameras really increase with an increase in megapixels? Is it worth it to pay extra for high-resolution cameras, NVR processing power, high network bandwidth and terabytes of disk space required for such high resolution. We have selected from stock several cameras with different resolutions - from 1 to 5 megapixels. We also ordered several expensive 5 - 8 MP IP cameras from manufacturers for this test. Here's who came to us for testing.

We gave preference to outdoor IP cameras with a fixed lens, because they do not need to be adjusted and flaws in the tedious adjustment of varifocal lenses will not affect the quality of the video image. True, we did not find 5-megapixel cameras with a fixed lens and tested 5MP varifocal cameras. We installed all the cameras in the same place and aimed at the opposite wall, where we have several self-made "test tables" hanging.

Let's see what we got. All snapshots of frames were taken through the web interface of the cameras using the IE browser and the ability to save a freeze frame built into each camera. In the table below, we have placed a reduced frame up to a resolution of 640x480 (or 640x360 if the camera has a widescreen matrix with an aspect ratio of 16:9), as well as a crop (cutout from the frame) with a resolution of 200x360 pixels. It more clearly shows the quality of "drawing" small details of the image - in particular, the letters on the Sivtsev table (a table for checking eyesight).

To view a full-size frame from an IP camera, click on its reduced copy in the table.

1 MP IP camera: Space Technology ST-120 IP Home, resolution 1280x720, 1/4 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
1 MP IP camera: Polyvision PN-IP1-B3.6 v.2.1.4, resolution 1280x720, 1/4 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
1.3 MP IP camera: MATRIXtech, resolution 1280x960, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
2 MP IP camera: Space Technology ST-181 IP Home, resolution 1920x1080, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
2 MP IP camera: MATRIXtech MT-CW1080IP20, resolution 1920x1080, matrix 1/2.8, lens 3.6 mm
3 megapixel resolution. IP camera: Dahua IPC-HFW-1300S-0360B, resolution 2048x1536, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
4 megapixel resolution. IP camera: Dahua IPC-HFW-4421EP-0360B, resolution 2560x1440, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
5 megapixel resolution.
5 MP	>

What we noticed when comparing these shots:

Cameras have different aspect ratios. IP cameras with a resolution of 1, 2, 4 megapixels have a widescreen frame with a ratio of 16:9. And cameras with a resolution of 1.3, 3 and 5 megapixels - 4:3. Those. the latter have a larger vertical viewing angle. This is very important for those cameras that will "look" at the object at an angle from top to bottom. For such cameras, there will be less dead zones under the camera both near and far. It is interesting to note that in relation to the 4MP camera, the 3MP camera not only has a larger vertical viewing angle, but also the resolution: 1536 versus 1440 pixels.
Cameras have a different viewing angle, and it depends not only on the lens, but also on the size of the matrix. Budget IP cameras with a 1/4 matrix and a standard 3.6mm lens have a horizontal viewing angle of no more than 60°. But the 5MP IPEYE camera with a 1 / 2.5 matrix has a wide viewing angle both vertically and horizontally (more than 110 °). True, the lens in the shortest focus has a distance of 2.8mm.
Well, the most important thing we wanted to pay close attention to is resolution. If you carefully examine all the frames, you will notice that, undoubtedly, as the resolution (megapixels) increases, the detail increases. But NOT PROPORTIONATELY! Not colossal. A 4MP camera in relation to a 2MP camera does not improve the picture by 2 times. Detail increases slightly. In any case, not a single camera could "cope" with the second line from the bottom of Sivtsev's table. And already the 6th bottom line (the right letters "B K Y") are confidently "read" by both cameras with a resolution of 4 and 2 MP.

Of course, here you need to make an adjustment for a different viewing angle. After all, with an increase in the viewing angle, we seem to be moving away from the scene being shot and the detail worsens. This is especially true for the 5-megapixel IPEYE camera - such a combination of matrix and lens gives too large a viewing angle. And if you make the angle on it the same as for 2MP cameras (about 90 °), then the letters of this table will be read more confidently.

Interestingly, another 5MP IP camera with the same declared parameters (lens 2.8-11, matrix 1/2.5) has a slightly narrower viewing angle in the shortest focus than IPEYE-3802VP. Detailing is approximately at the same level, the picture is somewhat noisier in the dark areas of the frame, although the cost of the BEWARD camera is several times higher. But she has a motorized lens and you can control the viewing angle while sitting in front of the computer. A picture with a maximum focus of 11 mm would then look like this:

Maybe someone needs this, given that with each change in the focus of the lens, you need to either manually or by pressing the "autofocus" button to adjust the sharpness of the image. And it takes from 5 to 20 seconds. But here you can already confidently read the second line from the bottom of the vision test table.

Later, we tested a pair of 2-megapixel IP cameras with a 2.8 - 12mm varifocal lens, as There is an opinion that they show better than "fixes". Here's what we got:

2 MP IP camera: MATRIXtech MT-CW1080IP40, resolution 1920x1080, matrix 1/2.8, lens 2.8 - 12 mm

2 MP IP camera: Hikvision DS-2CD2622FWD-I, resolution 1920x1080, 1/3 matrix, 2.8-12 mm lens

As you can see, the result is not much different from the previous one. The detail is almost the same as that of 2MP IP cameras with a fixed lens. Even with the expensive 2-megapixel (!) Hikvision camera (the retail price of which in February 2016 was 21,990 rubles) with a viewing angle of 50 degrees set at the factory (and to change it, we had to open the camera, which we absolutely did not want) the readability of the Sivtsev table turned out to be no higher than 5 lines from the bottom.

Perhaps varifocal lenses have greater light sensitivity and IP cameras with them "see" better in the dark, but this is a topic for a completely different test and another article, which we may turn to later. But varifocal lenses have practically no effect on resolution. Moreover, the slightest inaccuracy in the focus setting can lead to disastrous results, and all megapixels will be useless. And whoever has ever set up a varifocal lens on an IP camera will agree with me that it is oh so difficult, given the delay with which the signal from the camera arrives at the monitor.

5 MP

This is the first camera with a 1/1.8 sensor size that we got our hands on. In addition, this camera is capable of streaming at 25 fps at 5-megapixel resolution (2592x1920 px). Others can't do it yet. The maximum they are capable of is 12-15 fps at maximum resolution. The wide field of view of this camera immediately catches the eye. At 3.6mm focus, it is wider than 5MP 1/2.5 sensor cameras with 2.8mm focus. The resolution of the camera from BSP Security is at the level of other 5-megapixel cameras, even a little sharper. At least the contrast of the picture above. However, the situation is slightly overshadowed by the blurring of the left side of the frame. Perhaps we were unlucky and got a camera with a slight skew of the matrix.

And finally, 4K IP cameras with a resolution of 8MP have arrived at our warehouse. This is a hemisphere with a fixed lens DAHUA DH-IPC-HDW-4830EMP-AS. Here is a frame from this camera:

8 MP IP camera: DAHUA DH-IPC-HDW-4830EMP-AS, 3840*2160 resolution, 1/2.5 matrix, 4 mm lens

To open a frame in full resolution, in the browser, right-click on the picture and select the "open image" menu item.

We did not stop our test on office pictures, we also wanted to see real shots of the street scene. To do this, we aimed our cameras at the nearest parking lot, visible from our window. We did this deliberately in rather difficult light conditions - early twilight. Here's what we got.

1 MP IP camera: Space Technology ST-120 IP Home, resolution 1280x720, 1/4 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
1 MP IP camera: Polyvision PN-IP1-B3.6 v.2.1.4, resolution 1280x720, 1/4 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
1.3 MP IP camera: MATRIXtech MT-CW960IP20, resolution 1280x960, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
2 MP IP camera: Space Technology ST-181 IP Home, resolution 1920x1080, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
2 MP IP camera: MATRIXtech MT-CW1080IP20, resolution 1920x1080, matrix 1/2.8, lens 3.6 mm
3 MP IP camera: Dahua IPC-HFW-1300S-0360B , resolution 2048x1536, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
4 MP IP camera: Dahua IPC-HFW-4421EP-0360B , resolution 2560x1440, 1/3 matrix, 3.6 mm lens
5 MP IP camera: , resolution 2592x1920, matrix 1/2.5, lens 2.8 - 12 mm

Perhaps we chose a still too bright part of the day (17.10 - 18.00 in February), but all the cameras with such lighting did an excellent job. True, the 1.3 MP camera MT-CW960IP20 turned out to have a slightly darker picture than the others, which is rather strange, because. the 1/3 matrix should have better photosensitivity in relation to the 1/4 matrix.

As for the detailing of the picture, the situation is similar to the results of testing in the office. Although it increases with the increase in megapixels, but not significantly. Renault's car number was able to read both 4 and 2 megapixel cameras. True last A little worse.

IP cameras with a resolution of 1.3, 4 and 5 megapixels with their wide viewing angle "saw" even the number of our van, on which we carry all these IP cameras)). A 5 MP camera even saw a car standing to the left of the van. The viewing angle is amazing!

In March, we received two more 5-megapixel IP cameras BEWARD and BSP Security for testing. Let's compare how they show on the street.

5 MP IP camera: resolution 2592x1944, matrix 1/2.5, zoom lens 2.8 - 11 mm

5 MP IP camera: BSP Security, resolution 2592*1920, matrix 1/1.8, lens 3.6 - 11 mm

The chambers were tested at the same time (18.00 in mid-March). It is interesting to note that despite the fact that the camera from BSP Security has a wider angle, it has slightly better detail. State. the license plate of the blue Ford is almost readable, which is impossible to do on the frame from the BEWARD camera. The size of the matrix affects - 1 / 1.8 versus 1 / 2.5.

What will we conclude?

The treacherous pursuit of megapixels is practically useless and only manufacturers (well, what a sin to hide - we, sellers of these IP cameras, recorders and hard drives) benefit from them more profits.
In the vast majority of cases, 1-2 megapixel IP cameras are sufficient. And if you need better detailing of distant objects, then you need to solve such a problem not by a thoughtless increase in megapixels, but by reducing the viewing angle using a varifocal lens. By this we will "bring" the picture closer to ourselves and will be able to consider everything that we need. And an increase in the number of cameras. Perhaps this solution will be a little more expensive, but it will solve your problem for sure. And perhaps the price of a pair of 2-megapixel cameras with a viewing angle of 50 ° (for example, "fixes" with a 6mm lens) will be less than the price of one 5- or even 4-megapixel camera with an angle of 100 °. But they will give us much more information about the observed territory.
It should be borne in mind that with an increase in the number of pixels without increasing the physical size of the matrix, it only worsens the sensitivity of the video camera, because. the area of the pixel becomes smaller, and less light hits its surface.
Real high-quality lenses with optics that allow you to get all the advantages of multi-megapixel matrices cost at least $1000. What can you expect from a $20,000 12-megapixel camera?
Well, the last thing to remember - with an increase in "megapixel" you will additionally overpay for the processor power of the recorded devices, drives (HDD), network bandwidth and traffic when viewing over the Internet.

P.S. We will continue to test in this way the IP cameras that fall into our hands. Several test samples have already been requested from various vendors with resolutions ranging from 5 to 12 megapixels. Therefore, visit this page periodically for new information about the megapixel race in IP video surveillance.

P.P.S. If any of the manufacturers or suppliers would like to test their cameras on our "test stand" - welcome to contact us by e-mail: kb063_sobaka_yandex.ru

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A 16-megapixel camera in a smartphone sounds great, but an 8-megapixel one often takes better pictures. Technology allowed companies last year to equip all their flagships with stronger cameras, but for some reason this did not happen. Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC Droid DNA, BlackBerry Z10 And iPhone 5, all the gadgets settled down on a cozy bar of eight megapixels.

The image quality of these smartphones is very high, and much better than some devices with a large number of pixels. What's the matter? Let's figure it out.
Megapixels are not a guarantee of the quality of your photos, this is the first thing to understand. The formula for getting fantastic shots is much more complicated. This includes the weight of the camera module, lens material, ambient light sensor, image processing hardware, software that ties all the components together, and more. If you can add something else to this list, then most likely the article is not for you. Well, newbies are welcome.

Sensor

Most beginner and professional photographers will tell you that the most important element in an optical system is the sensor that reflects the light. No light, no photo.

Light enters through the camera lens, the sensor receives information and translates it into an electronic signal. The image processor takes the signal and creates an image that is by no means final. All photographic imperfections, such as noise, are visible here. Therefore, the size of the image capture sensor is extremely important. In plain language, the larger the sensor, the more pixels, and the more pixels, the more light you can get.

Many experts like to draw a rather colorful analogy of the relationship between pixels and sensors with “buckets of water”.
Imagine you have buckets (pixels) placed on asphalt (sensor). You want to collect as much water as possible in these buckets, as much as possible. It turns out that the more buckets (pixels) you can put on the asphalt (sensor), the more water (light) will get into them.

As you may have already noticed, increasing the number of pixels installed on a limited sensor does not improve the quality of photos. It is necessary to increase the sensor itself, which will have a bad effect on the ergonomics of mobile phones and, of course, increase the cost.

The relationship between the number of pixels and the physical size of the sensor is exactly why some 8-megapixel cameras can outperform 12-, 13-, or even 16-megapixel counterparts.

Unfortunately, most camera manufacturers do not disclose the full list of characteristics of their devices, and even more so do not indicate such "little things" as the width of the sensor. And think, even if they did, how many users understood these obscure terms?

Image processing

The image processor is equally important for creating high-quality photographs. Most modern smartphones have a graphics processor that handles all of the device's multimedia tasks. Whether it's photos, videos, and even games, processing is done without the load of the central processor, which significantly affects the performance of the smartphone.

The image processor helps to achieve (or at least approach it) zero delay between the shutter and the capture of the resulting image. At last year's Mobile World, company HTC advertised the latest discrete image processor for the phone family HTC One, entitled ImageChip. The processor could process photos at the highest speed, the delay between shots was only 0.7 seconds!

Also, do not forget about the graphical functions of the device. The algorithms embedded in the processor create the final image on the phone screen. Color definitions, photo clarity, noise reduction - all this happens at this stage.

Increasingly, some phone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung are including extra features in their expensive phones, such as detecting people's smiles and faces. All this is also the work of the electronics placed in our smartphones.

What is the result?

But back to our pixels. At present, users pay more attention to the convenience and speed of shooting. Quickly getting a smartphone armed with a really high-quality camera out of your pocket and taking a picture worthy of your home collection becomes a more pleasant procedure than waiting for the fancy “DSLR” to turn on. Yes, and carrying your phone is much easier and more convenient.

Do not chase the number of megapixels on smartphones. Having studied all the ins and outs and dealt with all the subtleties, you can choose a really good option.

More banal than this axiom is only the explanation "the iPhone, it turns out, does not have a slot for a memory card." But beginners continue to make mistakes when they “peck” on the number of megapixels in the camera, which means they will have to repeat themselves.

Imagine a window - an ordinary window in a residential building or apartment. The number of megapixels is, roughly speaking, the number of glasses inside the window frame. If we continue to draw parallels with smartphones, in ancient times, glass for windows was the same size and was considered a scarce commodity. Therefore, when the conditional "Tolyan" said that he had 5 glasses (megapixels) in his window unit, everyone understood that Anatoly was a serious and wealthy person. And the characteristics of the window were also immediately clear - a good view to the outside of the house, a large glazing area.

A few years later, windows (megapixels) were no longer in short supply, so their number only needed to be brought to the required level, and then calm down. Just bring it into line with the area (window for ventilation and a loggia, for the sake of strength, require a different number of windows) so that the camera gives out a slightly denser picture than 4K monitors and TVs give out. And finally, to deal with other characteristics - for example, to deal with clouding of glasses and image distortion. Teach cameras how to properly focus and paint the available megapixels with high quality, if you want specifics.

There are more “megapixels” on the right, but they give nothing but “obstacles” with the same “sensor” area

But people are already used to measuring the quality of cameras in megapixels, and sellers gladly indulged this. Therefore, the circus with a huge number of glasses (megapixels) in the same size frame (the size of the camera matrix) continued. As a result, today the pixels in smartphone cameras, although not “filled” with the density of a mosquito net, but the “devitrification” has become too dense, and more than 15 megapixels in smartphones almost always spoil rather than improve photos. This has never happened before, and here again it turned out that it is not the size that matters, but the skill.

At the same time, as you understand, the "evil" is not the megapixels themselves - if tons of megapixels were spread out on a sufficiently large camera, they would benefit the smartphone. When the camera is able to unleash the potential of all the megapixels on board, and not “smear” them in bulk when shooting, the photo can be enlarged, cropped, and it will remain high-quality. That is, no one will understand that this is just a fragment of a larger picture. But now such miracles are found only in the “correct” SLR and mirrorless cameras, in which the matrix alone (a microcircuit with photo sensors, on which a picture arrives through the “glasses” of the camera) is much larger than the smartphone camera assembly.

"Evil" is a tradition of sticking a clip of megapixels into tiny cell phone cameras. This tradition has brought nothing but blurred pictures and an excess of digital noise (“peas” in the frame).

Sony piled on 23 megapixels where competitors put 12-15 megapixels, and paid for this with a decrease in picture clarity. (photo - manilashaker.com)

For reference: in the best camera phones of 2017, the main rear cameras (not to be confused with the b/w additional ones) all operate with “pathetic” 12-13 megapixels as one. In photo resolution, this is approximately 4032x3024 pixels - enough for a Full HD (1920x1080) monitor, and for 4K (3840x2160) too, albeit back to back. Roughly speaking, if the smartphone camera has more than 10 megapixels, their number is no longer important. Other things are important.

How to determine that the camera is of high quality, before looking at the photos and videos from it

Aperture - how wide the smartphone "opened its eyes"

The squirrel feeds on nuts, the deputies feed on the money of the people, and the cameras feed on light. The more light, the better the photo quality and more details. Only sunny weather and studio-style bright lighting lamps for any occasion of life can not be enough. Therefore, for good photos indoors, or outdoors in cloudy weather / at night, cameras are designed in such a way that they produce a lot of light even in adverse conditions.

The easiest way to get more light to hit the camera sensor is to make the hole in the lens larger. The indicator of how wide the “eyes” of the camera are opened is called aperture, aperture, or aperture ratio - this is the same parameter. And the words are different so that the reviewers in the articles can show off incomprehensible terms for as long as possible. Because, if you don’t show off, the aperture can simply be called, excuse me, a “hole”, as is customary among photographers.

Aperture is indicated by a fraction with the letter f, a slash and a number (or with a capital F and no fraction: for example, F2.2). Why

so - a long story, and that's not the point, as Rotaru sings. The bottom line is this: the smaller the number after the letter F and the slash, the better the camera in the smartphone. For example, f / 2.2 in smartphones is good, but f / 1.9 is better! The wider the aperture, the more light enters the matrix and the better the smartphone “sees” (takes better photos and videos) at night. As a bonus, the wide aperture comes with beautiful background blur when you're photographing flowers up close, even if your phone doesn't have a dual camera.

Melania Trump explains what different apertures look like in smartphone cameras

Before buying a smartphone, do not be too lazy to clarify how “seeing” the rear camera is in it. We looked after the Samsung Galaxy J3 2017 - drive in the search "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture", "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture" or "Galaxy J3 2017 aperture" to find out the exact figure. If nothing is known about the aperture in the smartphone that you have looked at for yourself, two options are possible:

The camera is so bad that the manufacturer decided to keep silent about its characteristics. Approximately the same rudeness marketers are engaged in when, in response to “what processor is in the smartphone?” they answer “quad-core” and evade in every possible way so as not to disclose a specific model.
The smartphone has just appeared on sale and no characteristics, except for those in the advertising announcement, have yet been “delivered” on it. Wait a couple of weeks - usually during this time the details come out.

What should be the aperture in the camera of a new smartphone?

In 2017-2018 even in a budget model, the rear camera should produce at least f / 2.2. If the number in the denominator of this fraction is greater, get ready for the fact that the camera will see the picture as if in darkened glasses. And in the evening and at night, she will be “blind-sighted” and will be able to see almost nothing even at a distance of several meters from the smartphone. And don’t rely on the “twists” of brightness - in a smartphone with f / 2.4 or f / 2.6, an evening photo with an exposure “stretched” by the program will turn out to be “rough smudge”, while a camera with f / 2.2 or f / 2.0 will take a better photo without tricks.

The wider the aperture, the higher the quality of shooting on a smartphone camera

The coolest smartphones today have cameras with apertures of f/1.8, f/1.7 or even f/1.6. The aperture itself does not guarantee the maximum quality of pictures (no one has canceled the quality of the sensor and “glasses”) - this, I will quote the photographers, is just a “hole” through which the camera looks at the world. But other things being equal, it is better to choose smartphones in which the camera does not “squint”, but receives an image with wide-open “eyes”.

Diagonal of the matrix (sensor): the more - the better

The matrix in a smartphone is not the matrix where people with complex faces in black raincoats dodge bullets. In mobile phones, this word means a photocell ... in other words, a plate onto which a picture flies through the “glasses” of optics. In old cameras, the picture arrived on film and was stored there, and the matrix instead accumulates information about the photograph and sends it to the smartphone's processor. The processor arranges all this into the final photo and stores the files in internal memory, or on microSD.

The only thing you need to know about the matrix is that it should be as large as possible. If the optics is a water hose, and the diaphragm is the neck of the container, then the matrix is the very reservoir for water, which is never enough.

It is customary to measure the dimensions of the matrix in inhuman, from the bell tower of ordinary buyers, vidicon inches. One such inch is equal to 17 mm, but the cameras in smartphones have not yet reached such dimensions, so the matrix diagonal is denoted by a fraction, as in the case of the aperture. The smaller the second digit in the fraction (divisor), the larger the matrix -> the cooler the camera.

Is it clear that nothing is clear? Then just remember these numbers:

A budget smartphone will take good pictures if the matrix size in it is at least 1/3 "with a camera resolution of no higher than 12 megapixels. More megapixels - lower quality in practice. And if there are less than ten megapixels, the photo will be on good large monitors and TVs look loose, simply because they have fewer dots than the height-width of your monitor screen.

In mid-range smartphones, a good matrix size is 1/2.9” or 1/2.8”. Find a larger one (1/2.6” or 1/2.5”, for example) - consider yourself very lucky. In flagship smartphones, a good tone is a matrix of at least 1/2.8”, and preferably 1/2.5”.

Smartphones with large sensors shoot better than models with small photocells

Is it even tougher? It happens - look at 1/2.3” in the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and XZ1. Why, then, these smartphones do not set records for photo quality? Because the "automatic" of the camera is constantly mistaken with the selection of settings for shooting, and the stock of "clarity and vigilance" of the camera is spoiled by the number of megapixels - they piled 19 in these models instead of the standard 12-13 MP for new flagships, and a fly in the ointment crossed out the advantages of a huge matrix.

Are there smartphones in nature with a good camera and less harsh characteristics? Yes - take a look at the Apple iPhone 7 with its 1/3" at 12 megapixels. On the Honor 8, which is enough 1/2.9" with the same number of megapixels. Magic? No - just good optics and perfectly "licked" automation, which takes into account the potential of the camera as well as tailored trousers take into account the amount of cellulite on the thighs.

But there is a problem - manufacturers almost never indicate the size of the sensor in the specifications, because these are not megapixels, and you can be embarrassed if the sensor is cheap. And in reviews or descriptions of smartphones in online stores, such camera characteristics are even less common. Even if you have chosen a smartphone with an adequate number of megapixels and a promising aperture value, there is a chance that you will never know the size of the rear sensor. In this case, pay attention to the last characteristic of smartphone cameras, which directly affects the quality.

Few large pixels are better than many small ones.

Imagine a sandwich with red caviar, or take a look at it if you don’t remember well what such delicacies look like. Just as eggs in a sandwich are distributed over a piece of loaf, the area of the camera sensor (camera matrix) in a smartphone is occupied by light-sensitive elements - pixels. These pixels in smartphones, to put it mildly, are not a dozen, or even a dozen. One megapixel is 1 million pixels, in typical cameras of smartphones produced in 2015-2017, there are 12-20 such megapixels.

As we have already figured out, having an excessive amount of "blanks" on the smartphone's matrix is detrimental to pictures. The effectiveness of such a pandemonium comes out like that of specialized detachments of people to replace a light bulb. Therefore, it is better to observe a smaller number of smart pixels in a camera than a large number of stupid ones. The larger each of the pixels in the camera, the less “dirty” the photos turn out, and the video recording becomes less “jumpy”.

Large pixels in the camera (photo below) make evening and night shots better

An ideal smartphone camera consists of a large "foundation" (matrix / sensor) with large pixels on it. Only now no one is going to make smartphones thicker or allocate half of the case at the back for the camera. Therefore, the “building” will be such that the camera does not stick out of the body and does not take up much space, the megapixels are large, even if there are only 12-13 of them, and the matrix is as large as possible to accommodate them all.

The pixel size in a camera is measured in micrometers and is denoted as micron in Russian or mm in Latin. Before you buy a smartphone, make sure that the pixels in it are large enough - this is an indirect sign that the camera is shooting well. Type in the search, for example, "Xiaomi Mi 5S µm" or "Xiaomi Mi 5S µm" - and enjoy the camera characteristics of the smartphone that you have noticed. Or upset - depends on the numbers that you see as a result.

How big should a pixel be in a good camera phone?

In the “newest” time, it was especially famous for its pixel sizes ... Google Pixel is a smartphone that was released in 2016 and “showed Kuzkin’s mother” to competitors due to the combination of a huge (1 / 2.3”) matrix and very large pixels of the order of 1.55 microns. With such a set, he almost always produced the most detailed photographs even in cloudy weather or at night.

Why don't manufacturers "cut" the megapixels in the camera to a minimum and place a minimum of pixels on the matrix? There has already been such an experiment - HTC in the flagship One M8 (2014) made the pixels so huge that they fit in the rear camera ... four on a 1/3 ”matrix! Thus, One M8 received pixels as large as 2 microns! As a result, in terms of the quality of images in the dark, the smartphone “broke” almost all competitors. Yes, and photos in a resolution of 2688 × 1520 pixels were enough for Full HD monitors of that time. But the HTC camera did not become an all-round champion, because the Taiwanese were let down by HTC's color accuracy and "stupid" shooting algorithms that did not know how to "correctly prepare" settings for a sensor with unusual potential.

Today, all manufacturers have gone berserk in the race for the largest possible pixels, therefore:

In good budget camera phones, the pixel size should be 1.22 microns or more.
In flagships, pixels ranging in size from 1.25 microns to 1.4 or 1.5 microns are considered good form. More is better.

There are few smartphones with a good camera and relatively small pixels, but they exist in nature. This, of course, is the Apple iPhone 7 with its 1.22 microns and OnePlus 5 with 1.12 microns - they “leave” due to very high-quality sensors, very good optics and “smart” automation.

Without these terms, small pixels ruin photo quality in flagship smartphones. For example, in the LG G6, the algorithms create lewdness when shooting at night, and the sensor, although ennobled with good “glasses”, is itself cheap. IN

as a result, 1.12 microns always spoil night shots, except when you enter the battle with “manual mode” instead of stupid automation and correct its flaws yourself. The same picture prevails when shooting with the Sony Xperia XZ Premium or XZ1. And in the masterpiece, “on paper”, the Xiaomi Mi 5S camera, the lack of optical stabilization and the same “crooked hands” of the algorithm developers prevent it from competing with the flagships of the iPhone and Samsung, which is why the smartphone copes well with shooting only during the day, and at night it is no longer very impressive.

In order to make it clear how much to weigh in grams, take a look at the characteristics of the cameras in some of the best camera phones of our time.


Smartphone	The number of megapixels of the "main" rear camera	Matrix Diagonal	Pixel size
Google Pixel 2XL	12.2 MP	1/2.6"	1.4 µm
Sony Xperia XZ Premium	19 MP	1/2.3"	1.22 µm
One Plus 5	16 MP	1/2.8"	1.12 µm
Apple iPhone 7	12 MP	1/3"	1.22 µm
Samsung Galaxy S8	12 MP	1/2.5"	1.4 µm
LG G6	13 MP	1/3"	1.12 µm
Samsung Galaxy Note 8	12 MP	1/2.55"	1.4 µm
Huawei P10 Lite/Honor 8 Lite	12 MP	1/2.8"	1.25 µm
Apple iPhone SE	12 MP	1/3"	1.22 µm
Xiaomi Mi 5S	12 MP	1/2.3"	1.55 µm
Honor 8	12 MP	1/2.9"	1.25 µm
Apple iPhone 6	8 MP	1/3"	1.5 µm
Huawei nova	12 MP	1/2.9"	1.25 µm

What type of autofocus is the best

Autofocus is when a mobile phone “focuses” on its own while taking photos and videos. It is needed in order not to twist the settings “for every sneeze”, like a gunner in a tank.

In older smartphones and in modern Chinese "state employees", manufacturers use contrast autofocus. This is the most primitive way of focusing, which focuses on how light or dark it is “straight ahead” in front of the camera, like a half-blind person. That is why it takes about a couple of seconds for cheap smartphones to focus, during which it is easy to “miss” a moving object, or not want to shoot what they were going to, because “the train has left”.

Phase autofocus “catches light” over the entire area of the camera sensor, calculates at what angle the rays enter the camera and draws conclusions about what is in front of the smartphone’s nose or a little further. Due to its "intelligence" and calculations, it works very quickly during the day and does not annoy anything at all. It is common in all modern smartphones, except for the very budget ones. The only drawback is the work at night, when the light enters the narrow hole in the aperture of the mobile phone in such small portions that the smartphone “tears the roof” and it constantly fidgets with focus due to a sharp change in information.

Laser autofocus - the most chic! Laser rangefinders have always been used to "throw" a beam over a long distance and calculate the distance for an object. LG in the smartphone G3 (2014) taught such a "scan" to help the camera quickly focus.

Laser autofocus is amazingly fast even indoors or in semi-darkness

Take a look at your wristwatch... well, what am I talking about... okay, turn on the stopwatch on your smartphone and appreciate how fast one second goes by. And now mentally divide it by 3.5 - in 0.276 seconds, the smartphone receives information about the distance to the subject and reports this to the camera. And it does not lose speed either at night or in bad weather. If you plan to shoot photos and videos up close or at a short distance in low light, a smartphone with laser autofocus will help you out a lot.

But keep in mind that mobile phones are not Star Wars guns, so the range of the laser in the camera barely exceeds a couple of meters. Everything that is further, the mobile phone considers with the help of the same phase detection autofocus. In other words, to shoot objects from afar, it is not necessary to look for a smartphone with "laser guidance" in the camera - you will not get any use from such a function in general terms for photos and videos.

Optical stabilization. Why is it needed and how does it work

Have you ever driven a car with a leaf spring suspension? On army UAZ vehicles, for example, or an ambulance with the same design? In addition to the fact that in such cars you can “beat off the fifth point”, they are incredibly shaking - the suspension is as rigid as possible so as not to fall apart on the roads, and therefore it tells passengers everything that it thinks about the road surface, frankly and not a “spring” (because that there is nothing to spring).

Now you know how a smartphone camera without optical stabilization feels when you are trying to take a photo.

The problem with shooting on a smartphone is this:

The camera needs a lot of light to take good pictures. Not the direct rays of the sun in the "face", but diffused, ubiquitous light around.
The longer the camera "views" the image during the photo, the more light it snatches = the higher the quality of the picture.
At the time of shooting and these “peepers” of the camera, the smartphone must be motionless so that the picture is not “smeared”. Leave at least a fraction of a millimeter - the frame will be spoiled.

And human hands are shaking. This is very noticeable if you raise your arms outstretched and try to hold the bar, and less noticeable when you hold a mobile phone in front of you to take a photo or video. The difference is that the bar can “float” in your hands within wide limits - just not to put it against the wall, a neighbor, or drop it on your feet. And the smartphone needs to have time to “grab” the light in order for the photo to come out well, and do it before it deviates by a fraction of a millimeter in your hands.

Therefore, the algorithms try to please the camera and not put forward increased requirements for your hands. That is, they tell the camera, for example, “so, 1/250 of a second you can shoot, this is enough for the photo to be more or less successful, and taking a picture before the camera moves to the side is also enough.” This thing is called endurance.

How optical stabilization works

What's with the optostab? So after all, he is that “shock absorption” with which the camera does not shake, like the body of army trucks, but “floats” within small boundaries. In the case of smartphones, it does not float in water, but is held by magnets and “fidgets” at a short distance from them.

That is, if the smartphone “leaves” a little or trembles during shooting, the camera will shake much weaker. With such insurance, the smartphone will be able to:

Increase shutter speed (guaranteed time "to see the picture before the photo is ready") for the camera. The camera receives more light, sees more image details = the quality of the photo during the day is even higher.
Take clear pictures on the move. Not while sprinting off-road, but while walking or out of the window of a shaking bus, for example.
Compensate for shaky video. Even if you stomp your feet very sharply or sway a little under the weight of the bag in your second hand, this will not be as noticeable on the video as in smartphones without optical stabilizer.

Therefore, the optostab (OIS, as it is called in English) is an extremely useful thing in a smartphone camera. It’s also possible without it, but it’s sad - the camera must be of high quality “with a margin”, and the automation will have to shorten (degrade) the shutter speed, because there is no insurance against shaking in the smartphone. When shooting a video, you have to “move” the picture on the fly so that the jitter is not visible. This is akin to how in old movies they imitated the speed of a moving car, when it actually stood still. With the difference that in films these scenes were shot in one take, and smartphones have to calculate the shaking and deal with it on the fly.

Smartphones with a good camera, which without stabilization shoots no worse than competitors with stabilization, are vanishingly few - for example, the Apple iPhone 6s, the first generation of Google Pixel, OnePlus 5, Xiaomi Mi 5s and, with some stretch, Honor 8 / Honor 9.

What not to pay attention to

Flash. Useful only when shooting in pitch darkness, when you need to take a photo at any cost. As a result, you observe the pale faces of people in the frame (and all of them, because the flash is low-power), eyes closed from bright light, or a very strange color of buildings / trees - photographs with a smartphone flash definitely do not carry artistic value. In the role of a flashlight, the LED near the camera is much more useful.
Number of lenses in the camera. “Before, when I had 5 Mbps Internet, I wrote an essay in a day, and now, when I have 100 Mbps, I write it in 4 seconds.” No, guys, that's not how it works. It doesn’t matter how many lenses a smartphone has, it doesn’t matter who made them (Carl Zeiss, judging by the quality of Nokia’s new cameras, too). Lenses are either high-quality or not, and you can only check this with real photos.

The quality of the "glasses" (lenses) affects the quality of the camera. Quantity is not

Shooting in RAW. If you do not know what RAW is, I explain:

JPEG is the standard format in which a smartphone takes photos, it is a "ready-to-use" picture. Like Olivier salad on a festive table - it is possible to disassemble it “into components” in order to remake it into another salad, but it will not work out very well.

RAW is a hefty file on a “flash drive” in which all options for brightness, clarity and color for a photograph are sewn in its pure form, in separate “lines”. That is, the photo will not be “covered with small dots” (digital noise) if you decide to make it not as dark as it turned out in JPEG, but a little brighter, as if you had correctly set the brightness at the time of shooting.

In short, RAW allows you to "photoshop" a frame much more conveniently than JPEG. But the catch is that flagship smartphones almost always select the settings correctly, therefore, apart from the memory of the smartphone polluted by “heavy” photos in RAW, there will be little use from “photoshop” files. And in cheap smartphones, the camera quality is so bad that you will see poor quality in JPEG, and just as bad source in RAW. Don't bother.

Camera sensor name. Once upon a time, they were super important because they were the “quality mark” of a camera. The sensor model (module) of the camera determines the size of the matrix, the number of megapixels and the pixel size, minor "family signs" of shooting algorithms.

Of the “big three” manufacturers of camera modules for smartphones, Sony produces the highest quality modules (we don’t take into account individual examples, we are talking about the average temperature in a hospital), followed by Samsung (Samsung sensors in Samsung Galaxy smartphones are even better than the coolest Sony sensors, but "on the side" the Koreans sell something awkward), and, finally, closes the list of OmniVision, which releases "consumer goods, but tolerable." Intolerant consumer goods are produced by all the other basement Chinese offices, whose names in the characteristics of smartphones are ashamed to mention even the manufacturers themselves.

8 - execution option. Do you know how it happens in cars? The minimum equipment with a "cloth" on the seats and a "wooden" interior, the maximum - with artificial suede seats and a leather dashboard. For buyers, the difference in this figure means little.

Why, after all this, should we not pay attention to the sensor model? Because things are the same with them as with megapixels - Chinese "alternatively gifted" manufacturers are actively buying expensive Sony sensors, trumpeting at every corner "our smartphone has a super-quality camera!" ... and the camera is disgusting.

Because the “glasses” (lenses) in such mobile phones are of terrible quality and transmit light a little better than a plastic soda bottle. The camera aperture due to the same bastard "glasses" is far from ideal (f / 2.2 or even higher), and no one is engaged in setting up the sensor so that the camera correctly selects colors, works well with the processor and does not disfigure the pictures. Here is a clear example of the fact that the sensor model has little effect on anything:

As you can see, smartphones with the same camera sensor can shoot in completely different ways. So don't think that a cheap Moto G5 Plus with an IMX362 module will shoot as well as the HTC U11 does with its amazingly cool camera.

Even more annoying is the “noodles on the ears” that Xiaomi hangs on the ears of buyers when it says that “the camera in the Mi Max 2 is very similar to the camera in the flagship Mi 6 - they have the same IMX386 sensors! They are the same, only smartphones shoot very differently, the aperture (and therefore the ability to shoot in poor lighting) is different in them, and Mi Max 2 cannot compete with the flagship Mi6.

An additional camera "helps" to take photos at night of the main one and can shoot b/w photos. The most famous smartphones with such camera implementations are Huawei P9, Honor 8, Honor 9, Huawei P10.
The secondary camera allows you to "shove the unpushed", that is, it takes pictures with an almost panoramic viewing angle. The only supporter of this type of camera was and remains LG - starting with the LG G5, continuing with the V20, G6, X Cam and now the V30.
Two cameras are needed for optical zoom (zoom without loss of quality). Most often, this effect is achieved by simultaneous operation of two cameras at once (Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 8), although there are models that, when zoomed in, simply switch to a separate “long-range” camera - ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom, for example.

How to choose a high-quality selfie camera in a smartphone?

Best of all - based on examples of real photos. And, both during the day and at night. During the day, almost all selfie cameras produce good photos, but only high-quality front cameras are able to shoot something legible in the dark.

It is not necessary to study the vocabulary of photographers and go deep into what this or that characteristic is responsible for - you can simply memorize the numbers “so much is good, but if the number is larger, it’s bad” and pick up a smartphone much faster. For clarification of terms, welcome to the beginning of the article, and here we will try to derive a formula for a high-quality camera in smartphones.


Megapixels	Not less than 10, not more than 15. Optimal - 12-13 MP
Diaphragm(she is aperture, aperture)	for budget smartphones- f/2.2 or f/2.0 for flagships: minimum f/2.0 (in the rarest exceptions - f/2.2) optimal - f/1.9, f/1.8 ideal - f/1.7, f/1.6
Pixel size (µm, µm)	the higher the number, the better for budget smartphones- 1.2 µm and above for flagships: minimum - 1.22 µm (with rare exceptions - 1.1 µm) optimal - 1.4 µm ideal - 1.5 µm and above
Sensor size (matrix)	the smaller the number in the divisor of a fraction, the better for budget smartphones - 1/3” for flagships: minimum - 1/3” optimal - 1/2.8” ideal - 1/2.5”, 1/2.3”
autofocus	contrast - so-so phase - good phase and laser - excellent
Optical stabilization	very useful for shooting on the go and night shooting
Dual camera	one good camera is better than two bad ones two average cameras are better than one average camera (brilliant wording!)
Sensor (module) manufacturer	not specified = most likely some kind of junk inside OmniVision - so-so Samsung in non-Samsung smartphones - ok Samsung in Samsung smartphones - excellent Sony - good or excellent (depends on the honesty of the manufacturer)
Sensor model	a cool module does not guarantee high quality shooting, but in the case of Sony, pay attention to IMX250 and higher sensors, or IMX362 and higher

I do not want to understand the characteristics! Which smartphone to buy with good cameras?

Manufacturers produce countless smartphones, but among them there are very few models that can take good pictures and shoot videos.