Smartphones have reached the level of quality they are not only because sensor hardware is improving, but also because software and processing have improved a lot. So why aren’t camera manufacturers taking advantage of this technology?
Outside of Apple, every major smartphone maker is running its smartphones using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. All the brains of how it works and what it does with photos are commanded from this one little processor and over the years, what it has been able to do has grown by leaps and bounds Is.
Fall back
Yesterday, Qualcomm announced the latest generation of Snapdragon chips that will add even more capability to devices soon to be announced later in the year. The chip is so advanced that it can drive a 200-megapixel sensor, playback 8K video at 60 frames per second, and automatically enhance photos and videos in real-time using what the company calls semantic segmentation.
In short, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip is the reason why so many smartphones take photos that rival the image quality of full-sized cameras.
As good as smartphone software gets, they’re still using sensors that are significantly smaller than those found in standalone cameras. By that logic, should the technology powering those devices continue to advance at roughly the same pace, no matter how good a Snapdragon processor is, it may never match the imaging capability of a dedicated camera.
But the thing is, the technology that drives standalone cameras isn’t developing that fast. Over the past few years, the gap between what a smartphone can do and what a dedicated camera can do has been shrinking. For whatever reason, camera makers – even those that already buy Qualcomm chips for their smartphone lines (such as Sony) – routinely incorporate these computational photography features into the full-size cameras provided by Qualcomm. Refuse to take advantage of the benefits.
From the outside looking in, there must surely be a reason why Snapdragon chips are not being used in the cameras. Something’s holding the camera makers back, isn’t it?
“No, there’s nothing stopping it. In my opinion, Snapdragon is already more powerful than the APs/ISP chips in any camera body today,” Judd Heap, vice president of product management at Qualcomm, told Petapixel.
Heap says that if a camera maker integrates a Snapdragon chip into a camera, those devices will have a huge advantage over what’s currently available.
,[Standalone cameras would gain] A lot of things,” he says.
“Much more advanced and powerful CPU, GPU, DSP and ISP – all in the latest process geometries; a platform connected via WiFi, 5G and Bluetooth; improved audio performance; a more advanced GUI, [and more],
Currently, all camera manufacturers develop their own silicon in-house and use it to power their equipment. But given that Qualcomm has been creating and developing more powerful chips year after year, why do camera makers insist on making their own less powerful processors?
It doesn’t have to be Android
One reason some camera makers may not want to take on Snapdragon is that it may require a complete rebuild of the camera’s operating system. Some camera makers are already struggling to create easy-to-use menu systems (looking at you, Sony), so rebuilding from scratch would be a huge undertaking.
Additionally, some people may find that they need to have a camera running on Android, which isn’t necessarily ideal. But Heap says it’s not the only option.
“Most companies would prefer not to use Android, as they want a more familiar ‘instant’ experience and custom UX implementation. Linux is a possibility in some cases, or in other cases, camera makers want an OS solution that is even simpler,” he says, indicating that there are no such limits to the OS a camera maker can use. Not comfortable with.
It’s hard to discuss this idea of a smartphone and camera hybrid without looking at the most recent failure of such an idea: Samsung’s NX system. While Samsung never made an official announcement, the NX system quietly died out between 2015 and 2017.
While Samsung ultimately failed, it’s hard to say whether it was due to the operating system, which combined a traditional camera menu with a menu that looked more like Android. Heap says Samsung’s lack of success probably had more to do with how difficult it is to start a new business segment than anything else.
“I think it’s hard to bring a ‘cross over’ product into the camera market landscape. Now, the market is essentially split into two pieces: the pro mirrorless market and the smartphone market,” he says.
“It’s hard to have something in the middle… It may not be as flexible as a pro mirrorless camera (interchangeable lenses, a full frame image sensor, etc.), and it’s not as connected, portable, and ‘always with you’” ‘ As is your smartphone.
The issue that camera makers are going to come up against is the dichotomy, which has already created for consumers the idea that they will have to choose between them.
Smartphones aren’t going to slow down
There is no evidence that smartphone makers or Qualcomm are going to slow down the pace of technological progress and let camera makers catch up. If Sony, Canon, Nikon, OM Digital, Panasonic, and Leica aren’t careful, they’ll find themselves too far behind to recover.
“As we continue to improve image quality on smartphones, I think this divide has intensified. If you’re not that type of person or if you don’t need to carry/use a pro mirrorless camera, So for everyone else the smartphone camera now satisfies the bar of image quality and ease-of-use, ”says Heap.
Arguably, full-size camera makers may have waited too long to bring smartphone features to their devices, but even though it would have been best to do it years ago, the second best time would have been today. Heap thinks it’s certainly a possibility, and there’s really nothing stopping companies from doing so.
“While it hasn’t happened yet, I wouldn’t rule it out in the future. As the pro camera market continues to shrink in volume, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for camera companies to invest in and develop their own silicon.” Has been. I think it’s just a matter of time.”
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Image Credits: Qualcomm
