How to understand the details of the camera specifications of any smartphone

11 min read

 

“Don't give me a fish but teach me how to fish” is a clever logic we often use when buying some modern tech and electronics, especially when budget plays a key factor in our selection. For example, you do not need anyone to tell you what are the best smartphones with a professional camera in 2022, but you want to know for yourself which phone has the best camera when there are two phones at the same price in front of you.

 

How to understand the details of the camera specifications of any smartphone

You want to know what are the criteria for choosing a camera phone and which phone is capable of delivering high-quality photos, right? So, in this topic, we will take you with us on an interesting tour through which we will learn about the most important features of the smartphone camera and we will show you how to determine the quality of the camera and measure its results through its technical specifications described on its official pages or pages on the Gsmarena website, and in this way, it will be easy for you to know The best camera.


 1-     Megapixels


Most of us probably already know what a pixel is, a pixel is a very small "point" size element in an image that the eye may not see without magnification. And the term Megapixels refers to the number of such small elements or points in an image in the form of matrices or columns. Look closely at the picture in the previous example and you will be able to tell what we are trying to talk about. You should know that the image is made up of a huge number of pixels, so you will notice that you are unable to clarify the details of the image when we try to zoom in and zoom out greatly.

 

How to understand the details of the camera specifications of any smartphone

For smartphone cameras, mega-pixel refers to the number of photographs on the image sensor that is responsible for capturing light information to produce images. For example, if the image has a resolution of 12 megapixels, it is very likely that this image was taken with a sensor containing 12 million optical sites. So, this means that every million pixels equal one megapixel. We call this result "Resolution" or in Arabic "Resolution". The more megapixels on the sensor, the more accurate images we get.

 

Therefore, when buying a new phone, you always want to look for the most accurate sensor. If we imagine the Galaxy S21 Ultra, we will find that the primary camera sensor is 108 megapixels, and since each megapixel equals one million pixels, this means that the sensor contains 108 million A points to capture the light, which also means "theoretically" obtaining a high-resolution image. But the quality of the camera is not only measured by the accuracy of the sensor…


 2-     camera sensor


In order to understand the sensor of digital cameras let us imagine a very simple example. Suppose someone asks you to find something very small in a dark room, what would you ask them to do before entering the room? Definitely a flashlight. The bigger the lamp, the better your chance of seeing things in the room, right?

 

camera sensor

The phone's camera sensor is the vital component that plays the most important role because it is responsible for capturing the light that enters the phone's camera to produce a digital image. The larger the sensor size, the greater its ability to receive more light. The higher the amount of light, the better the image quality. So in simple terms "bigger sensor is better".

 

Sensor size is expressed in inches or fractions of an inch and is marked in the specifications with that mark ("). If you try to search the specifications of any phone on the GSMArena website, you will not find any sensor larger than the size and exact size of the primary sensor on the Galaxy S21 Ultra camera" 1/1.33 as shown in the previous image.

 

Remember the pixel we talked about in the first paragraph and that the more it is, the more light we get? Now imagine, the size of the sensor also has an effect on the size of the pixel itself. So, without complication, the larger sensor would not only be responsible for capturing more pixels but had the ability to capture larger pixels as well. And all of this plays in favor of better resolution and clarity of images.

 

3-Pixel Size

 

So we talked about megapixels and sensor size, and now it's time to talk about the pixel size itself. Do you want to know why Huawei P40 Mate Pro's camera is better? Simply because if you look at the size of the pixel responsible for capturing the light on the surface of the sensor, you will immediately know that it is the largest pixel so far found in any smartphone camera sensor.

 

Pixel Size

Pixel size is one of the most important things to focus on if you want to take better photos because it expresses the amount of light that will be captured by the sensor itself, and is measured in micrometers. Try to compare for yourself the pixel size of the rear primary camera sensor of the Huawei P40 Pro and the sensor in the front camera of the same phone and you will know immediately why the rear primary camera produces better pictures than the front camera. The first pixel has a size of 1.22um, while the pixel in the front camera sensor is 0.8um, which means that the first is 0.4um larger.

 

So although the Galaxy S21 Ultra camera has a 1/1.33" sensor, while the P40 Pro's a 1/1.28" camera sensor, the same pixel size in the Huawei camera sensor is larger. The larger the pixel sizes, the more light they can capture, and ultimately, they can produce higher-quality images.

 

So if you understand what we are trying to talk about you will be able to answer the next question! Which is better: if we have a 1/1.24” sensor that has 12 megapixels or if we have a sensor of the same size that has 20 megapixels? The answer is the first is better. Do you know why? Because a smaller sensor size means bigger pixels, higher pixels The larger it is, the lighter it is able to capture, while the sensor with 20 million pixels on its surface will cause more noise, especially in low light.

 

4-Aperture

 

Aperture

Aperture is an adjustable hole or aperture between the lens and sensor that controls how much light should reach the sensor, and how wide or narrow the aperture is expressed in focal numbers. If you see a lower F-stop, this means a larger aperture that is able to transmit more light to the sensor.

 

For example, the f/1.8 aperture is actually larger and is able to transmit lighter than the f/2.0 aperture. But note that the aperture of the lens is fixed in a smartphone camera, unlike a digital camera, where the aperture is adjustable. Therefore, in a nutshell, the focal number in a smartphone camera expresses the amount of aperture of the lens, and the lower the number, the better the amount of light that can be transmitted.

 

5- Lenses

 

Lenses

Focal length is measured in millimeters and is the distance between the image sensor and where the light converges and focuses the image inside the lens. But in order not to get into the maze of how to measure the focal length in smartphone cameras and digital cameras, let's just say that the focal length that is measured in millimeters in the camera properties of smartphones expresses the angle of view of the lens of the light.

 

The short focal length is best for capturing landscapes because it gives you a wide angle of view to capture more details in scenes. But the higher the focal length, the larger the subject and the smaller the scene in the image, which is required for portrait photography, where the focus is on the person in the photo and not the scene behind him.

 

6- Image Stabilization

 

Image stabilization refers to the way or how a mobile camera shake is reduced to avoid blurring of the image due to movement and shaking during shooting. Image stabilization can be achieved mechanically with OIS, digital with EIS, or a combination of both with AIS technology.

 

Image Stabilization

OIS is a mechanical function in the camera that counters movement and slight camera vibrations by moving the image sensor or lens using the gyroscope.

 

Electronic or digital EIS stabilization is an additional post-processing effect that depends on the software itself rather than a mechanical function, and because of the way or how the EIS stabilization technology works it is the best and most suitable for capturing videos with a mobile camera

 

AIS is a feature that combines both of them present in Huawei phones, which means the stability of artificial intelligence, and in fact, it is not much different from EIS because both are dependent on post-processing.

 

7- Optical Zoom

 

For a long time, smartphone cameras depended on digital optical zoom, which was causing image noise because it relied on cropping the image, zooming the center of the image and digitally expanding it to fit the frame, increasing the number of pixels and distortion of detail. Therefore, smartphone companies found that there is a possibility to provide mechanical optical zoom if there is more than one camera, and this is what prompted them to provide multiple cameras in phones.

 

Optical Zoom

Optical zoom is much better than digital zoom because it uses the same lens for zooming and zooming, thus preserving image quality and essential details. Therefore, phones with a single camera cannot use optical zoom, but rather rely only on digital zoom. If you try to divide the focal length of the telephoto lens by the focal length of the prime lens, you immediately get the level of optical telephoto.

 

Most smartphone cameras have 2x optical zoom because the telephoto lenses in the camera usually have a focal length of 50mm, but some lenses are capable of 3x optical zoom and this is because the focal length of the telephoto lens is three times the focal length of the primary lens. But if you look at the focal length of the telephoto lens on the Galaxy S21 Ultra you will find that it is 240mm, while the focal length of the primary camera is 24mm, which means you have a camera with a 10x optical zoom level.

 

8- High Dynamic Range HDR

 

Most of us are probably familiar with HDR technology. When HDR is enabled, the camera takes multiple photos at different exposure levels, all of which are combined into a final image with balanced shades. Auto-HDR means that the camera is able to balance shadows, analyze the scene on its own and see if there are areas in the image that are too bright or too dark and faded without having to enable HDR in the imaging software used.

 

High Dynamic Range HDR

Therefore, if the word HDR appears in the phone's specifications, this means that you have to activate HDR during your shooting process. If the word Auto-HDR appears, it means that the camera is able to adjust the dynamic range on its own. But note that some companies may call it different names such as HDR+ or SmartHDR.

 

9- Flashlight

 

We are nearing the end of the journey that we started, but before concluding we want to shed light on the flash in the phone camera and its importance in photography. First of all, the most common types of flashlights used in smartphone cameras are LEDs, which are dual light-emitting dots that provide continuous illumination and are energy efficient. While some smartphones may have Xenon flashlights, they do not provide continuous lighting and consume more energy.

 

Flashlight

Some phones may have a single, dual, or even quad-LED flash, and the more it is, the more the phone's camera software can detect a better balance in warm and cool color temperatures to give a flash that better suits the ambient light. In the end, it is a good solution for shooting in low lights, but it is completely different from that found in professional digital cameras, so it is better not to rely on it except in rare cases only because it can spoil the good image with its lighting in the image.


 in conclusion


Well, these are the most prominent specifications that we see that need to be clarified in the part about the specifications and characteristics of the phone camera on the gsmarena website. But we want to point out a very important point: through the paragraphs of this topic, you will be able to understand the characteristics of any camera in any smartphone, but in fact, to be honest with you, you will not always know whether it is the best camera or not because there are too many standards and companies Different in the manufacture of cameras on which phone factories depend.

 

Therefore, if you have difficulty deciding whether your phone’s camera is good or not, you should look at third-party reviews (foreign websites) and see for yourself the results of shooting video day and night, the look of the photos in natural and artificial lighting, the resolution of the photos when using the maximum zoom and the level of clarity Its details, analysis of the stability of the camera when creating different scenes, the functions of the software used in the shooting, its sophistication, and ease of dependability. All these points are made clear by the reviews.

 

If you want an easier solution and a quick answer, you can go directly to DXOMARK, a site that specializes only in analyzing and reviewing cameras and audio for modern digital devices and evaluating each phone with a number of points it deserves based on the performance of its cameras in photography. For example, you will find in the statistics that a phone like the Vivo X70 Pro is the best phone in the world currently, with a score of 126 points, while a phone like the Apple iPhone 13 with a score of 125 points, and so forth.

 

Unfortunately, you may only find high-end phones there. Therefore, however, we will leave you with some recommendations that we think are actually worth looking at and thinking about while buying….

 

1- A cheap phone with a really good camera: Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro

 

2- A phone that offers a very precisely compatible camera with the selling price: Mi Note 10 Pro

 

3- A phone with the best selfie camera, regardless of its price: Mi 10 Ultra

 

4- The best phone that offers you an amazing video shooting experience: iPhone 12 Pro

 

5. The best smartphone camera in the world: Vivo X70 Pro

 

Fortunately, nowadays all phone companies are interested in the camera more than any other component of the phone, and with a little sacrifice and access to a mid-range phone, you will get a great camera that produces exactly the photos you wish to see and share with your friends. So, in the end, make sure that all modern phones have a good camera, and you don't have to worry that you will get a bad camera even if the specifications and how to understand them are complicated for you. 

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