Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “How can smartphones have so many megapixels? Pixel binning explained”.
Every year it seems like smartphone, manufacturers are packing more and more megapixels into their devices, and it’s only going up from here. But if you know anything about cameras, more megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean better image quality. But why is that? And how is it that companies like samsung are able to offer so many megapixels in its cameras in a device that fits in your pocket? I’M harley morano with android authority, and in this article we are going to be talking about one of the ways smartphone camera quality has improved over the years and that is through pixel binning. Before we dive into pixel binning, we need to first understand what a pixel actually is in the context of photography. A pixel refers to photo sites which are the physical elements on a camera sensor, and these elements capture, light and convert it into a digital signal, thereby producing an image for simplicity, sake i’ll be using the term pixels rather than photosites. In this explanation, a camera sensor, pixel, is typically measured in microns, which is a millionth of a meter. Any pixel that is one micron or lower in photography is considered rather small with photography.
You generally want your pixels to be as large as possible because the bigger the pixels, the larger the surface area for light capture and that’s why mirrorless cameras that excel in low light, such as the a7s iii, only use a 12 megapixel sensor, but here’s the catch. The less megapixels the lower your image resolution, but at the same time, the more megapixels you have the less surface area you have for light capture. So how are smartphone manufacturers able to pack as much as 108 megapixels into its cameras without sacrificing low light performance? Well, that’s where pixel binning comes to the rescue. Pixel binning is the process of combining data from four more pixels into one.
So if a camera sensor uses pixels as small as 0.9 microns pixel binning would combine four of those pixels and the resulting photo would then be similar to an image captured with a camera that uses a sensor with larger sized pixels. Most camera sensors use a color filter, known as a bayer filter to capture images. The filter is composed of 50 green 25 red and 25 blue filters, and this imitates the human eye, sensitivity to colors a quad bayer filter is typically used for pixel binning, which groups or bins 4 pixels into one all, while keeping the rgb distribution as a traditional. Bayer filter for cameras with really high megapixel counts 9 in one pixel. Binning can be used.
So if you take the samsung galaxy s22 ultra as an example, its 108 megapixel camera can bend nine pixels to act as one in order to produce images equivalent to cameras with a 12 megapixel sensor. So what exactly are the advantages of pixel binning? Well, as i’ve mentioned before, the bigger the pixel, the greater the surface area for light capture, so by bending pixels to act as one smartphones are able to capture in more light, resulting in photos with reduced noise in low light conditions. And when you take photos during the day with plenty of sunlight phones with a high megapixel count, will still be able to take advantage of the high resolution sensor to retain more detail in your shots. If you’re wondering, which phones use pixel binning, the answer is pretty simple: if you’ve got a phone with a high megapixel count, including 24 48 and 100 megapixels, then it’s very likely that your phone’s software will automatically use pixel binning in order to prioritize an overall better Photo in low light, however, most phones include a setting to force your phone to take photos at the maximum resolution. If you so desire, some notable phones that don’t use pixel bidding at all include the devices in the iphone 13 series, which still uses 12 megapixel sensors. For its cameras, but why is that? Well, the truth is that pixel binning isn’t perfect.
In fact, this technique can come at a cost and that cost is resolution by treating four pixels as one you’re, essentially dividing your resolution by four. This means that a bin shot from a 48 megapixel sensor actually leaves you with a 12 megapixel photo, meaning that your final image will have less detail compared to a non-binned image and if you’re, taking a pixel bin picture with a 16 megapixel sensor, the results are Going to be even worse as a bend image would leave you with a shot, that’s equivalent to what you’d get out of a 4 megapixel sensor, which is very early 2000s pixel binning is just one of many ways. Smartphone manufacturers are able to improve its camera quality year over year and when you factor in technologies like computational, photography, object, recognition, night, photography, modes, hdr and more, it’s honestly incredible to see the types of photos you can take with a device that fits in the palm Of your hand, if you like this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up, don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell to know when we upload next leave a comment down below on future topics. You want us to cover and remember to check us out at androidauthority.com for more smartphone content. I’M harley moranin i’ll, see you in the next article.
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