Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Samsung Galaxy S10 5G Features 6 Cameras

Samsung announces S10 generation of its flagship Galaxy phones, including the top of the range 5G model with ToF rear camera. CNET put together a nice table summarizing the camera differences in the S10 family:


"The Galaxy S10 5G truly packs the power of a professional-grade camera into your phone by offering a total of six lenses – two on the front and four on the back. In addition to featuring all of the lenses included in the Galaxy S10+, the 5G model introduces Samsung’s next-generation 3D Depth Camera.

This innovative camera allows the device to accurately capture depth by measuring the length of time it takes for an infrared light signal to bounce off the photograph’s subject. The camera uses the resulting depth information to improve the quality of portrait-style images, and to power exciting new features like Video Live focus and Quick Measure. The former allows you to apply cinema-quality bokeh effects to recorded videos, while the latter enables you to use your phone to instantly measure distance, area or volume.
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5 comments:

  1. Playing devil's advocate here.

    * Is there any data as to usage statistics for these advanced modes? For example, how often (during the reasonably short life of a mobile device) will the user actually "measure distance, area or volume" optically rather than either a) estimating it or b) measuring it? I worry that when a handset's contract is say 24-months, that feature will be used perhaps a handful of times.

    I am effectively querying the likely usage frequency vs the increased system level cost. A few days ago, we took pictures and measured up for a new kitchen. Provisionally this feature would be useful for that, however the tape measure we used was a) certainly older than 24-months and b) was very very cheap. It took perhaps a few minutes to measure the room. Using this the "Quick Measure" tool would still have required selecting the points where we would need to measure from. It perhaps would decrease time, but not by much.

    The question can then be re-cast into one of the increase in system level cost vs the decrease in time/effort to do that measurement but then weighted by the usage frequency of that feature and its measurement accuracy.

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  2. front camera should be dual pixel sensor, not dual aperture.

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    1. Right. The table has been coped from CNET. I can't fix it, unfortunately.

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  3. Is the TOF camera made by Samsung ?

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    1. Not yet. It will start out with the other "S" company as Samsung TOF is sampling but not qualified. They will then migrate to their own silicon by the end of the year. So it is a short-lived win for the other guy.

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