“Apple never cared much about megapixel count in iPhone cameras,” Stasys Bielinis reports for Unwired View. “They started with 2 megapixels in the original iPhone, when Nokia was already shipping smartphones with 5 megapixel modules. It took Apple 3 years to get to by then standard 5 megapixels in iPhone 4. And its latest iPhones are still stuck with 8 megapixel sensors, when every other flagship smartphone comes with 13 megapixels or more.”
“Despite that, every iPhone review comes to the conclusion that Apple’s handsets are among the best camera phones out there, handily beating any rival Android, with only viable competition coming from Nokia,” Bielinis reports. “Which proves that Apple was right to focus on better lenses, bigger pixels and sensors, advanced image processing algorithms, and not the pixel count. The only thing disappointing about 8 megapixel iPhone 5S camera was the lack of optical image stabilization, which allows for much better low light performance and better videos.”
“But the lack of OIS in iPhone 5S doesn’t mean that Apple is doesn’t care about it. In fact, we can now confirm that Apple is indeed working on optical image stabilization and improved autofocus system for iPhone cameras. Yesterday Apple’s patent application called ‘VCM OIS actuator module’ was published on USPTO. It describes how Apple plans to go about adding OIS and improved autofocus in future iPhones,” Bielinis reports. “”
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“Apple’s patent application, filed in October 2012 and based on a provisional patent application filed in July of that year, credits a sole inventor, Richard Topliss,” Eric Slivka. “According to his LinkedIn profile, Topliss joined Apple as a senior camera technology specialist in January 2012 after spending over a decade as chief technical officer of Cambridge Mechatronics in the UK. That company currently focuses on OIS actuators for smartphones, and today’s patent application makes clear that Topliss immediately brought that expertise to bear at Apple.”
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]