Why are phones up to now limited to 30fps 1080p recording?

[GTRagnarok]

What's the limiting factor?

 

[Yuriman]

My guess is the sensors.

 

[Deeko]

It was only the last generation that was even able to do that well, before that we only had 720p...and choppy, at that. So I imagine on top of the image sensors, also the processing power.

 

[XenIneX]

Small, crappy image sensors. Small, crappy optics. Good-enough encoding DSPs. Shoddy drivers across the board.

Mostly the first two, though.

 

[phucheneh]

The bigger question is why would anyone need/want to record 1080p on their phone?

Even if the processing power is there, the CCDs/lenses, as mentioned, are not. In the case of lenses, they never will be.

It seems a lot like phone cameras to me; creating a problem and inventing a bad solution. What's that, you say? Your 5MP photos aren't sharp enough? Well here, now you can take 10MP photos!

...meanwhile, a ten-year-old 5MP camera still looks infinitely superior. There are some things that simply cannot be scaled down to fit in your pocket. 'Pocket' HD video recorders are, IMO, as good as you're going to get, and they do it by using a much bigger lens or orienting it sideways...doubt we'll see that in a phone.

 

[dguy6789]

The difference between the best smartphone cameras and smartphone video recording now and 2 years ago is absolutely massive. I don't see a reason to think it's pointless to await more advancement.

 

[Skurge]

If people can carry around a note 2, I don't see why they wouldn't be able to thickness and weight and a 808 pureview like lense on a topend smartphone.

I'm surprised Samsung haven't tried it already. They don't mind experimenting. Galaxy Camera and Galaxy Beam come to mind. I'm Sure A15 won't have a problem handling 1080p60.

 

[dagamer34]

None of the DSPs inside SoCs are designed to handle 4K video. The MSM8074 will be the first to do so later this year (and even then, it'll still be H.264 video, not H.265, that's 2 years away).

 

[WelshBloke]

I'd imagine that the speed of the storage is an issue as well (although I can't be arsed to work it out).

 

[phucheneh]

I'd imagine that the speed of the storage is an issue as well (although I can't be arsed to work it out).

I think you're right. All the SD-based recorders have the same framerate limit, it would appear. But all SD is far from equal...is it a limit of the card's controller, perhaps?

I was not familiar with the Pureview...damn that's nuts. It's another use of the blunt-force megapixel sledgehammer...but it's hard to argue with the results. For those who are also not familiar: 41MP camera.

I'm just trying to wrap my head around the practicality of that. I mean, at scale, it's obviously going to be a blurry, noisy image. But super sharp when scaled to proper size. What are all those extra megapixels doing? Am I wrong; CAN sheer pixel count compensate for very small lenses?

Also, has anyone made anything that can give proper focus control yet?

Not to threadjack or anything, I'm just curious if I've been missing some leaps in tech because of my 'traditionalist' views.

 

[Deeko]

Well for starters, the PureView has a very large sensor for a phone. And its at its best when its oversampling to create a regular 5-8MP sized photo with that sensor. Also you can get some extra benefits, like lossless digital zoom. PureView really had a lot of innovative ideas - will be interesting to see it in a high end phone.

 

[phucheneh]

Well for starters, the PureView has a very large sensor for a phone. And its at its best when its oversampling to create a regular 5-8MP sized photo with that sensor. Also you can get some extra benefits, like lossless digital zoom. PureView really had a lot of innovative ideas - will be interesting to see it in a high end phone.

I understand that; what I mean is, what makes a 'normal' camera take good 5MP shots without needing the much higher MP capability? I thought sensor size/quality was a large part of it. I just don't understand the concept of devoting a huge sensor to generating such large images rather than working on the quality of something smaller.

I dunno, loaded question for an EE major or something, I guess: 10MP SLR CCD vs 41MP cameraphone CCD...totally different animals? Or just making different use of a similar part?

edit: I guess it's the same answer as everything; go read wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device

So they ARE simply different technology, it appears? edit again: finally got around to reading a tab I had opened, heh. The Pureview is CMOS. Damn, CMOS has come a long way; and I guess resolution IS (partially) the answer.

 

[Hulk]

It's not the optics exactly, or the sensor. You see pinhole cameras can create very good images. And all you need is 1920x1080 resolution-wise. Every phone made today can do that.

The problem is processing power and the fact that when you move beyond 30fps you lose even more low light reach. The tiny sensors in phones are already struggling at 30fps in low light.