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Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

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Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#21

Post by arihant »

What is the point when the pictures will be all weird. To get 21x zoom on that sized camera, you need a horribly small sensor. The sensor on this is a bigger than iPhone's, but they also crammed in 16mp. Now, that screwed them to limit the fstop value to f/2.8 widest open. Note that widest open will happen at the time when you're zoomed out completely. You will most likely end up using the f/5.5+ fstop value on this camera on most images.

Any image this can produce would be way worse than an iPhone. Usually, you are shooting at f/2.4 on an iPhone. Notice that blurring smooth creaminess you get on off focus areas on iPhone? You will never get it from this camera. Things will either be focussed, or bluntly blurred.

They don't care about image quality at all with those specs. This is a marketing gig.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#22

Post by goggles99 »

mrspandex wrote: post #13

Why on earth would I want my camera to be running a full phone OS? It's one thing to build a camera into a phone for convenience, but when will having an OS and touchscreen in the back of my camera make something more convenient?

When there is an app on the Play store for 3.99 that makes your camera a much better camera.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#23

Post by majormajor »

arihant wrote: post #21

What is the point when the pictures will be all weird. To get 21x zoom on that sized camera, you need a horribly small sensor. The sensor on this is a bigger than iPhone's, but they also crammed in 16mp. Now, that screwed them to limit the fstop value to f/2.8 widest open. Note that widest open will happen at the time when you're zoomed out completely. You will most likely end up using the f/5.5+ fstop value on this…

I don't think it's fair to compare the aperture of this lens when zoomed in to the aperture of an iPhone lens. Without using it, my first guess is that having an optical zoom is going to do more for general purpose image quality than what is lost by cramming 16mp into a small sensor. Obviously it depends on the use case, but in general, people like to zoom.

On a less speculative note, I disagree that image quality = narrow DOF. There's more than one style of picture in the world.

That said, I agree with the overall point of it being mostly a marketing gimmick (16MP on a tiny sensor? app store access? yawn). But then I'm a guy who's not happy without at least an APS-C size sensor, preferably with interchangeable lenses. And even then, it does drive me crazy that this can have GPS built in and my SLR requires an obtrusive, reportedly-very-slow add-on.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#24

Post by spartango »

enraged_camel wrote: post #17
watty wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point of 16MP if you're only concerned about scaling to Facebook?

Exactly. Megapixels only really matter if you're doing photo-editing or photo-printing. If it's being down-scaled - and it is, if you are uploading it to whatever social media site - then a 5MP iPhone 4 camera will serve you just as well.

Well, except for the part where high density, low area sensors tend to have more noise and poorer sensitivity. If you were to assume that the iPhone and this device's sensors were the same size (they're probably not), then the iPhone's images would generally turn out better.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#25

Post by r00fus »

iharris wrote: post #10

I'm not convinced that a point-and-shoot camera can be considered "pro". Thumbs-up for manual exposure settings and the inclusion of Android, but a single f/2.8-5.9 lens is not going to be suitable in a lot of situations. I also don't see a flash (or flash mount) anywhere, which would make it annoying to take photos in a dark bar or restaurant. Alternatively, I think it would be neat to apply some of these features t…

Completely Agreed - add to that an external mic, switchable lenses, high ISO (DSLRs can go as high as 8x higher) - some of the other things a "Pro" might want of the camera.

Though this product looks nice - what's the point? - that you can play Angry Birds on your P&S camera? Keep in mind P&S cameras are a shrinking market being cannibalized by smartphones and DSLRs.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#26

Post by arihant »

majormajor wrote: post #23
arihant wrote: post #21

What is the point when the pictures will be all weird. To get 21x zoom on that sized camera, you need a horribly small sensor. The sensor on this is a bigger than iPhone's, but they also crammed in 16mp. Now, that screwed them to limit the fstop value to f/2.8 widest open. Note that widest open will happen at the time when you're zoomed out completely. You will most likely end up using the f/5.5+ fstop value on this…

I don't think it's fair to compare the aperture of this lens when zoomed in to the aperture of an iPhone lens. Without using it, my first guess is that having an optical zoom is going to do more for general purpose image quality than what is lost by cramming 16mp into a small sensor. Obviously it depends on the use case, but in general, people like to zoom. On a less speculative note, I disagree that image quality =…

People like to zoom, but I'm not entirely sure if a 480mm effective focal length is what most people zoom to. When I used a point and shoot, 6x zoom seemed enough, but that's only one man's opinion.

GPS and wireless access pisses me off too, just for the cost alone. GPS unit for my DSLR is like $250. This is nuts.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#27

Post by pkulak »

kevingessner wrote: post #4

16 megapixels packed into a 1/2.3" sensor? Ouch. That's the smallest sensor size on this image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sensor_sizes_overlaid_ins... I hope DPReview does a review on this camera -- I suspect it's going to produce extremely poor photos.

Yup, it's a real shame. Imagine if they made it 5 megapixels, with BSI and full well? You could still make 8x10 prints (if anyone still does that...), but you could also take photos of your friends in a dark bar with no flash at f4. It would be amazing. But no one is doing it, and I have no idea why. Even the SLRs are now up above 20 megapixels. Why? I'm really anxious to see if Apple has the balls to keep the next iPhone at 8, or if they bump it up to 13.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#28

Post by esolyt »

mrspandex wrote: post #13

Why on earth would I want my camera to be running a full phone OS? It's one thing to build a camera into a phone for convenience, but when will having an OS and touchscreen in the back of my camera make something more convenient?

There are smartphones, tablets, netbooks, watches, ski goggles running Android. It is interesting to consider Android as a "phone OS".

Sure, your camera doesn't need apps. Neither does your phone. But just because it's not necessary, doesn't mean that it won't provide lots of benefits. You can, for instance install Dropbox and use Camera Upload to automatically sync all your photos to all your devices the moment you shoot them.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#29

Post by 205guy »

Wow, so much negativity in these comments. To me this is the logical conclusion of the phone camera (a lot of people had this idea, I'm sure, but they seem to be the first to get it out). After bashing Samsung for their iPhone copying, I applaud them here for making something innovative. Camera phones (always available, and now internet connected) are a not-insignificant part of the social web revolution--people want to see and be seen (and apply some filters, too).

Front like a camera, back like a phone. Slick UI to control the camera instead of the usual confusing array of buttons. Image quality should be equivalent to other P&S, which is better than the usual camera phones. 16 MP is just a number to sell the thing into the target demographic: active camera phone users, not DSLR users.

And I think leapfrogs is not an exaggeration. If this takes off, Samsung will have the edge and can start branching out into other wireless-enabled cameras, camera OS's, and who knows what else they can think of. The pure camera manufacturers will be playing catch-up forever, just as the old cellular phone manufacturers were leapfrogged by Apple and never caught up.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#30

Post by w1ntermute »

jemeshsu wrote: post #7

Interesting that camera get the latest jellybean before Galaxy phones. I guess next up will be a Galaxy TV. And Galaxy fridge that auto order to restock your pizza and beer.

The camera's software isn't controlled by carriers, unlike smartphones.
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