The history of the development of mobile phone cameras is like playing a game for survival.
The past and present sections of the mobile phone have created two issues, and they talked about the development of the mobile phone screen and battery. Today, let’s talk about the deeper, but more interesting, mobile phone camera of the past and present! When talking about the Jedi survival game, some people may be relatively unfamiliar, but when it comes to "eat chicken," it is estimated that many people are familiar with it. I am also a fan of chicken games. When I was conceiving this article, I suddenly thought that comparing the past and present of the mobile phone camera to a chicken game, there are many amazing similarities. (Of course, some places may be far-fetched, but for the sake of understanding, please smile.) For example, at the beginning of the game, the parachute just landed, the first thing I wanted was to hurry to find a gun, whether it was a pistol or a spray, to solve the problem, in order to survive on the battlefield (market). When the mobile phone has just popularized the camera, it is also necessary to solve the problem first; then, with the replacement of the gun (camera photosensitive element), the bullet diameter becomes thicker (pixel size) and the lethality (image quality) is gradually enhanced; There is no gun (photosensitive element), you have to have a grip (anti-shake component) and a double lens (zoom lens) blessing, in order to let you win in the encounter, improve your viability, and finally go to the fate of life (Word of mouth and market double receipt). how about it? Does it sound quite reasonable? Then the exercise begins immediately and is ready to skydiving! At the beginning of the Jedi survival game, the protagonist landed on the battlefield. The first thing that usually goes is to find a gun, even though the gun may not be what you like. However, in order to prevent the unarmed self from being attacked by others, it will be put into a box (the game character will become a gear box when it dies), so even if it is a slightly ribbed blessing, it will not hesitate to pick it up. When the mobile phone camera was just beginning to spread, it also experienced a period of slightly ribbed parameters. In September 2000, the world's first mobile phone equipped with a camera was born - Sharp J-SH04. Its camera pixels have only 11W pixels, and even pixels that print one inch of photos are not enough. Without auto focus, no beauty, no flash, it is obviously difficult to win the attention of the market. However, it is worth noting that the sensor component of the mobile phone camera was still a CCD, not the COMS now. Because the latter was not mature at the time. Although the performance of the first camera phone was not as enthusiastic as expected, the addition of the camera module to the mobile phone became the mainstream trend of mobile phone development in the following years. In 2003, Panasonic released a unique rotating design phone, the Panasonic P505iS, which can be rotated 360 degrees on the side or 180 degrees backward. Obviously, this is the mobile phone that focuses on the camera function. And it's most eye-catching is the first time equipped with auto focus. In the photo mode, by pressing the shutter button on the side of the camera halfway, the auto focus function will automatically focus on the subject in the middle, and you can shoot directly by pressing it. If the camera sensor is like a gun, then the auto-focus module is like a crosshair on the gun. It solves the problem that the early camera can only fix the focal length at infinity, which causes the image quality of nearby objects to be blurred, so that the phone can Adapt to more shooting scenes and bring a clear picture. Today, almost all smartphones' rear cameras are equipped with an autofocus module. However, at that time, it was not easy to get the phone to focus automatically. Due to the size limitations of mobile phones, it is impossible to port a traditionally large camera focus module to a mobile phone. So you must create a focus module for your phone camera. The final solution is shaped as a metal cover that covers the photosensitive element. The lens inside the cover is not completely fixed, but is fixed by a small spring to give it a certain upper and lower movement space. And is wound by a metal coil, and a magnet is also designed at a corner of the metal cover to provide a magnetic field, so that when the coil passes current, according to the principle of electromagnetic induction, the coil wound around the lens module is moved by the force, thereby To achieve the purpose of focusing. This technique is known as the VCM voice coil motor. To date, nearly 80% of mobile phones still use this focusing component. However, the light focusing component is not enough. How to adjust the focusing module and fix it in the position we need is also a problem that the manufacturer needs to solve. The oldest mobile phone used the most stupid contrast focus method. The principle is to adjust the lens position by applying different currents to the lens group to adjust the focal length, and then according to the contrast change of the picture at the focus, find the lens position when the contrast is maximum, that is, the position of accurate focus. In the era of feature machines, the impact of software on users is far from what it is now. Therefore, mobile phone manufacturers want to create product differentiation, hardware is the only way out. When mobile phone manufacturers realized that the camera could bring a better user experience, they began to explore a camera module that is more suitable for mobile phones. However, in the early stage of development, it is difficult for the industry to take into account the factors that affect the quality of the shooting, such as pixel count, focus, fill light, anti-shake, zoom, etc., so we see that many products on the market only take care of one aspect. In 2004, the first optical zoom phone In the Jedi survival game, if the enemy is far away from you, if you don't have a double mirror, it is difficult to hit it. You can only regret watching him disappear from sight. In real life, if the mobile phone does not have a zoom function, it will also have more than enough power in some scenes. For example, if you are sitting in the last row of the classroom, you have to take notes on the teacher's blackboard. . . . . In May 2004, the world's first optical zoom phone was born, the Sharp V602SH with 2x optical zoom periscope lens, but the level of 200W pixel still limits its practicality. In July 2004, followed by the Sharp V602SH, Samsung launched the SPH-S2300 for the Korean market, with a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3x optical zoom, auto focus and some manual settings, up to ISO 400, the retractable camera looks really People think this is a camera with a call function. Of course, Nokia is not to be outdone. In 2006, the N93, which can achieve 3x optical zoom, was introduced. Nokia N90's first mobile phone with Carl Zeiss certified lens The Nokia N90 launched in 2005, I don't want to comment on industrial design, because the double shaft design is really special. However, the aircraft has a great achievement in shooting, which is the use of Carl Zeiss certified lens. Nokia pioneered the cooperation between mobile phone manufacturers and traditional optical imaging giants. Although the image quality of the 200W pixel is not outstanding because of the high lens, it and its descendants rely on the master optical image giant. The aura of the harvest has gained recognition from the market. If I match this piece of equipment that is configured in the Jedi survival, I think that the Geely clothes that can only be obtained in the airdrop should be more appropriate. The role of the flash is to allow the phone to capture scenes that cannot be shot under normal conditions, such as night scenes, darkrooms, and more. This is a bit like the grenade in the Jedi survival game. You know that there are enemies upstairs, but the reality is that you are easily hit by the stairs when you go up the stairs. OK, that grenade solves the problem. However, if the LED flash is a grenade, the Xenon flash is a bit like an explosive pack. . . . . . . Although the power is enough, but with one, the third-class package has to account for half. . . . . . . . Sony Ericsson K790 The first Xenon flash phone As the flagship product in 2006, the Sony Ericsson K790 is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera and is considered by the industry to be the first mobile phone equipped with a xenon flash. Compared to the LED flash, it can bring more light in the dark, and the flash It also has a red-eye reduction function that is only available with digital cameras. The Xenon flash unit has been miniaturized on the phone, but it still occupies a lot of space. It can be seen that equipped with a better fill light component is Sony Ericsson's efforts to improve the camera function of the mobile phone, but from the above product map we can see the drawbacks of carrying this component - too thick. This is because the xenon flash lamp not only contains the lamp body itself, but also covers a large volume of high voltage capacitor to supply power. For a portable product such as a mobile phone, if the portability is lost, it will inevitably be left out of the market, so the sales volume of the machine is not good. In the history of mobile phone development, there are several products that use Xenon flash, such as Nokia Lumia 1020, Lumia 928 and so on. But their thicker body is destined to be used by mainstream consumer groups. It is also because of this, LED flash with lighter and more power-saving features will remain dominant in the field of mobile lighting. The reason why the Jedi survival game is interesting is not only because of the powerful weapons inside, but also the tension created by the poison circle that narrows the battlefield every once in a while. Because as the battlefield narrows, the chances of encountering enemies become greater. However, you must risk to go to the safe area, because there is only one dead road outside the poison circle. If it is said that from 2000 to 2006, during the initial development of mobile phone cameras, mobile phone manufacturers can hardly plug down components such as optical zoom and Xenon flash by virtue of the size of the function machine and the low thickness requirements. Then in 2007, it ushered in a historic moment - the birth of the iPhone. This is a product that subverts the operating logic of the functional machine era. It is light and portable, and the large screen and built-in APP social software make the mobile phone camera more important than ever. However, the thin and light properties of the smartphone limit the performance of the camera. Who can bring a better camera experience in a smaller volume, it can survive more comfortable. The "poison circle" of the mobile phone industry began to shrink. In the Jedi survival game, one of the favorite rifles is the M416, because this gun is stable when shooting, letting you shoot the gun to the enemy. However, this stability is not realized when you just got the gun, but requires the grip of the grip, tail drag and other accessories to reduce the recoil of the horizontal and vertical axes when the rifle is fired. Lumia 920 In 2012, Nokia introduced the Lumia 920 with a Carl Zeiss certified lens and OIS optical image stabilization technology. This technique corrects the "optical axis offset" by the floating lens of the lens. The principle is that a small movement is detected by the gyroscope in the lens, and then the signal is transmitted to the microprocessor, and the processor immediately calculates the amount of displacement to be compensated, and then compensates the lens group according to the direction and displacement of the lens. The lens is compensated for by the principle of the previously mentioned VCM voice coil motor; thereby effectively overcoming the image blur caused by the vibration of the camera. This anti-shake technology requires relatively high lens design and manufacturing, and the cost is relatively high. The effect of the optical image stabilization function is quite obvious. Under normal circumstances, turning on this function can increase the shutter speed of 2-3 speeds and reduce the chance of blurring of handheld shooting. Cell phone pixels are like bullets in automatic rifles in the game. If a shuttle bullet can hold more numbers, your attack ability (image quality) will be significantly improved. The pixels of the mobile phone industry have been improving, because only higher pixels can bring more detail to the image. Even CCD sensors have been replaced by CMOS sensors. A big reason is that CMOS can bring a higher number of pixels. Nokia 808 PureView Nokia's exploration of camera functions can be described in a leading era. In 2012, Nokia introduced the 808 PureView, a stunning 4100W pixel phone. This parameter is hard to match even with a SLR camera. Today, six years later, there is a configuration phone with the same configuration, which is also used as a selling point. In the mobile phone field, the number of pixels and pixel size are two contradictory concepts. The pixel size is like the size of the bullet in the game, and the bigger the bullet's lethality (image quality), the stronger it will be. However, due to the increase in the size of the bullet, it is bound to occupy more places, so the number of loaded bullets will be reduced under the premise of the bullet capacity. The same is true for mobile phones. Due to the thin and light size of the mobile phone, the size of the photosensitive element cannot be made large. Therefore, if high pixels are pursued, the area of ​​a single pixel can only be controlled to a small extent, generally about 1.2μ. HTC One M7 However, HTC chose to increase the area of ​​a single pixel, resulting in a higher amount of light entering a single pixel for a better nighttime photo experience. On February 19, 2013, HTC released the HTC One M7, a new generation flagship smartphone. The machine is equipped with a self-developed Ultrapixel (simplely translated as "super pixel") camera, the biggest feature is that it has 2μ large pixels, the sensitivity is 300% higher than the average mobile phone camera. Unfortunately, because of the high pixel size, the number of pixels in the camera is only 408W. We know that all high-end cameras generally use Xenon flash as a fill-in device, on the one hand because of its light intensity, and on the other hand, because its color temperature is very close to the color temperature of the sun, so that the photos taken Easier to control white balance. iPhone 5S However, as the mobile phone industry enters the era of smart phones, the thin and light appearance determines that the LED light source is the optimal fill light material. It has the advantages of energy saving and compact size. Although the brightness is not as good as the xenon flash, the problem of color temperature can be solved by technical means. In 2013, Apple introduced the iPhone 5S with a dual-color temperature flash. By adjusting the light intensity of two different color temperature flashes, the color temperature level of the shooting environment is improved, and the true color reproduction of the film has been achieved. As can be seen from the follow-up of follow-up friends, this is a mature and effective program. In the previous article, we regard the focusing technology as the sight in the Jedi survival game. If the initial contrast focus is the sight of the machine, then the laser focus and phase focusing technology can be regarded as a red dot or holographic sight. Can bring faster aiming speed (focus speed) and adapt to more environments. (dark light environment) At the MWC show in February 2014, Samsung introduced the flagship Galaxy S5, which was equipped with PDAF phase focusing technology for the first time. The image sensor used in this technology, some of the pixels in the photosensitive area are sacrificed. These pixels are called Masked Pixels and are used in pairs. The distance between the pixels, combined with their relative changes, can help the system determine how far the lens needs to move for accurate focus. Just as a person's eyes can distinguish objects from far and near. With this focusing system, the focus of the phone does not have to be adjusted back and forth like the traditional contrast focus (commonly known as the pull bellows) to determine the correct focus. In short, this technology can significantly improve the focus speed. Later, Apple also equipped this phase focusing technology on the iPhone 6, called Focus Pixel. LG G3 In May of the same year, LG released the 2014 flagship LG G3. What makes people shine is that the LG G3 not only has dual LED flash, but also has a sensor with laser autofocus. The sensor emits a cone-shaped laser beam from a window on the same side as the camera, and repeatedly determines the distance of the object based on the length of time the laser is reflected back, and then completes the focus. This technology allows the focus speed to reach 276 milliseconds, even faster than a person blinking. And because it uses active emission focusing technology, it can also provide a fast and accurate focusing experience in low light conditions. However, it also has a drawback, because the laser power is limited, so you can only focus on nearby objects. Speaking of the manufacture of mobile image sensors, you may be the first to be Sony's IMX series, but Samsung is also playing a pivotal role in this field. When the S5 was released in 2014, Samsung's camera sensor was equipped with ISOCELL deep trench isolation technology. Samsung Galaxy S5 This technology is based on BSI (back-illuminated sensor) technology and focuses on reducing interference between pixels; ISOCELL technology can reduce pixel crosstalk by 30% compared to BSI technology. By forming a physical barrier between pixels, the interference problem between pixels is avoided, and the pixel can absorb more photons, thereby obtaining a better photo effect, thereby improving the image quality. In addition, in terms of design integration, ISOCELL can further reduce the camera module to make the phone thinner and lighter. Perhaps, after reading this, everyone will feel that this technology is somewhat familiar. That is most likely because everyone has learned about the camera performance of the iPhone 6s. Because it also carries this technology, and compared to Samsung's relatively low-key, Apple seems more willing to use this technology as a focus of photography. However, the release date of the aircraft is 2015, and like phase focusing technology, it is one year later than Samsung. In the later stage of the Jedi survival game, as the poison circle narrowed down a little, not only the opponent's equipment has reached a high level, but also the gas power outside the circle has become extremely large. So the choices placed in front of the players, only carefully take every step. After 2016, with the gradual decline of the mobile Internet and the popularity of smartphones, the competitive pressure faced by mobile phone manufacturers has become more and more serious. If there is a mistake in product positioning, it may mean serious word-of-mouth. Going back, resulting in a fate crisis. Many mobile phone manufacturers have been eliminated in history in this situation. In the development of mobile phone cameras, the introduction of new technologies in the past two years has been relatively slow, but the ambition is very huge, because mobile phone manufacturers have already targeted the professional digital camera field. . . . . . Thinking of a classic sentence, there is nothing that a camera can't do. If there is, it is another camera. In 2011, the dual-camera technology was already applied in the mobile phone industry. However, the road was wrong. It was a 3D shooting route, but the experience was very bad, so it was quickly eliminated. Nowadays, the development of the dual-camera is divided into several factions, which are black and white color dual-photographed by Huawei mobile phones. The zoom dual-photographed by the iPhone Plus model and the high-parameter main camera add a parameter. Only three groups of auxiliary cameras for blurring. Obviously the first two are the most technical. The black and white camera in Huawei's black and white color dual camera has the ability to receive light because it removes the color filter, which can bring more rich and sharp details. The algorithm combines it with the color information of the color camera to preserve the advantages of both cameras. And support large aperture mode. The dual-camera of the iPhone Plus model achieves 2x optical zoom by using two cameras with different focal lengths. And through the dual camera algorithm, the iPhone also has its own large aperture mode, but the name is called "portrait mode". Huawei P20 Pro Recently, the newly launched Huawei P20 Pro mobile phone even adopts a three-camera solution, which is to add a telephoto lens to the original solution, so that the optical zoom capability of the product is also available. In addition to the previously mentioned stability, bullet size, magazine capacity and other factors in the Jedi survival game, there is also an important indicator of the bullet's rate of fire (how many bullets are fired per unit time). The difference between the 240 shots and the 960 rounds in one second is definitely obvious. Sony XZ Premium In the field of mobile photography, slow-motion video has become a technology favored by manufacturers. Last year, Sony released the new generation of IMX400 series photosensitive elements. The biggest improvement of this series is the use of a stacked structure, adding a layer of DRAM dynamic memory between the traditional photosensitive layer and the bottom circuit, so that the photosensitive element is short. The ability to take large amounts of data at a time. The specific data is 960 frames of 720P resolution video recorded in 1 second. If you play this video at normal speed, the time is 32 times slower! The fleeting images, such as bubble bursts and sub-pops, will become clear and shocking in the face of this technology. The technology was first introduced to Sony's own XZ Premium. Variable aperture technology: this is the ideal aperture solution At the MWC show in February this year, Samsung launched the S9 series of mobile phones. The main selling point of the camera in the camera is the use of variable aperture technology, that is, the aperture can be changed in F1.5 and F2.4. Some people may wonder if the mobile phone aperture should not be bigger, the better? In fact, because the larger the aperture, the higher the risk of the camera lens being degraded, so you will find that the aperture parameter of the iPhone is not the highest in the mobile phone during the same period. Samsung S9 plus However, the significance of the large aperture on the mobile phone is mainly to reduce the exposure time by increasing the amount of light entering, and increase the chance of filming in a dark environment. However, if you want to ensure better picture quality in a bright environment, you need to reduce the aperture. So I think that the iris is the best aperture solution for mobile phones. Looking at the 18-year development of the mobile phone camera, we found that its function is closely related to the development stage of the mobile phone. In the era of functional machines, mobile phones are only used as a communication tool. Although it is important, communication is the core, so the development of the camera is just a icing on the cake, and more is to transplant existing camera technology to mobile phones; However, in the era of smart phones, with the popularity of mobile Internet and social software, the camera has become an important component of mobile phones to create data and value. At this time, it has been specially tailored for special treatment, large aperture, high pixel, optical image stabilization, Laser focusing, etc., a new technology only for it; and later, with the decline of mobile phone update, mobile phone manufacturers need to launch a boxing to meat camera product for self-protection to meet the increasingly demanding needs of consumers. However, on the battlefield of photographing, there is no chicken, only a steady stream of new airdrops and new enemies, but on the road of chasing airdrops, some manufacturers may become cannon fodder under the guns of others, and some manufacturers have gained great power. New equipment Dongguan Guancheng Precision Plastic Manufacturing Co., Ltd. , https://www.dpowergo.com
