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disolitude on 02 March 2012
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trasharmdsister12 said:

It seems a few people have decided to stop reading (or understanding) at the title. The sensor is 41 MP but the end result image is only 5 MP. Nokia's "PureView" tech is a bunch of algorithms which take the 41 MP image and use supersampling techniques to essentially take 8 pixels worth of data to make 1 final image pixel. So no, you can't use all 41 MP of resolution to spy on your neighbour's nipple hair(s). The enlarged sensor size also helps each pixel diode pick up more light which removes noise from light diffraction and allows each sensor to capture/absorb a decent amount of photons to make for decent low-light imaging. 

The specific algorithms may be different but what they're doing with all the data is the same thing that happens when you're watching a video on your computer and you resize the video player to make it smaller. The window is no longer large enough to display every pixel of video data in the file so the pixel data is being sampled to create a smaller image. This process seems to make the image seem sharper and (sometimes) make colors appear more vibrant. Same goes for pictures. If you have any digital pictures on your computer taken with a camera with more than 3 MP, you can try this. Shrink the window down in size and the picture will appear to get sharper. Finally to keep things gaming oriented, it's what is known as SuperSampling AA. 

I think it's a pretty neat solution. We're beginning to see a lot slower progression in some hardware fields in terms of raw capturing or processing capability and the industry continues to improve simply through ingenuity and creative ideas.

For more technical info check out Ars Technica's article on it.


I read the full thing and many other articles covering this phone camera.

It takes 5, 8, 35 and 38 megapixel images.

The quality of the 5 and 8 mp images tht the camera makes is amazing due to pixel oversampling and the main reason why people should be excited about the technology.

However you can take a 38MP shot if you feel like making posters... :)