Sony announces new CMOS sensors, 12+ megapixel cameraphones coming soon

by Tim Stevens posted Nov 13th 2008 at 8:51AM

If you've enjoyed the point-and-shoot megapixel race, which has pushed sensor resolutions in your average 3X zoom compact cam well into the teens -- leaving a sad trail of dark and noisy holiday pictures in its wake -- you're going to just love the mobile phone megapixel race. Samsung's 10 megapixel SCH-B600 currently holds the lead, but Sony's got a ringer chomping at the bit with the Exmor IMX060PQ CMOS sensor, which, paired with its matching auto-focus lens module, will turn some lucky handset into a 12.25 megapixel shooter when it enters the race in March. Sony has also announced 5.15 and 8.11 megapixel sensors, but really, anything not in double digits is so last year.

[Via Akihabara News]

Filed under: Multimedia, Sony Ericsson

Tags: cameraphone, cmos, exmor, imx060pq, megapixel, megapixel race, MegapixelRace, sony, sony exmor, sony imx060pq, sony u060f, SonyExmor, SonyImx060pq, SonyU060f, u060f

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highest Ranked

carcomptoy @ Nov 13th 2008 9:18AM

Instead of focusing on megapixel count, we should focus on the actual quality of the lenses and processing software. 5MP is really sufficient for 95% of people, and what I would rather see is image quality on par with point-and-shoots rather than a megapixel race.

Highly Ranked

Zane @ Nov 13th 2008 9:19AM

I hope they've improved the optics. The current market leaders - SE C905, LG Renoir and Samsung INNOV8 still have a LONG way to go before they are even remotely close to the quality offered by P&S cams, let alone SLRs.

Neutral

Jamar @ Nov 13th 2008 10:10AM

If you're dissatisfied with international-market cameraphones, go with Japanese ones. The SE SO905iCS, for example, uses what is essentially a smaller DSLR sensor (from Sony's Alpha DSLR line) and has optical zoom. Similarly, the new Sharp 930SH/SH1810C will have a proper CCD sensor.

Neutral

abubasim @ Nov 13th 2008 12:09PM

Check Sony's announcement: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200811/08-144E/index.html

The 12 MP sensor should be 1/2.5" while the 1/3.2" is 8 MP (same as used in the C905?).

Neutral

Sqube27 @ Nov 17th 2008 3:49PM

If only there had been an industry that had already gone through all this rigamarole with megapixel wars.

In this fantasy world that I live in, they would have learned that ignoring knowledgeable consumers while pandering to the "moar meguhpixlz!!11/2/" crowd only harms you in the long run, since everyone runs to the knowledgeable consumer and the knowledgeable consumer will be only too happy to shit on your product.

But hey, like I said: that's just a fantasy that I dreamed up one time. We'll be doing this for at least another year or two before half-decent lenses start getting general usage in cell phones.