Gu Haiyingzhi, Executive Vice President of Global Business and Marketing of SONY Mobile, released the ultra-high sensitivity, high-sensitivity camera technology, and fusion image signal processor that SONY is currently developing, which will be used in future SONY dual-lens mobile phones .

SONY also showed the media a trial-made dual-lens module and a Fusion image processing chip, which combined these two to improve sensitivity.

According to the press conference, this technology shows that when shooting video, the ISO can reach 12800 (the current model is ISO 4000), and when shooting still photos, the maximum can reach ISO51200 (the current model is ISO12800), even in Very, very low light, where you can't reach your fingers, you can also shoot images that are beyond what you can see with the naked eye. In addition, combined with SONY is developing a new fusion image processor, using hybrid technology to improve the shooting quality and experience, including less prone to hand shake, clearer image quality, better noise reduction...etc.

However, SONY did not mention what it is to mix, is it black and white + color, or is it a dual-lens image mix? What to shoot to mix? Or multiple composite HDR+++ or something? These have not been disclosed at present, but from other brands (such as Google Pixel, U11, Galaxy, Huawei, etc.), if the software is well written and well written, multiple shots and synthesis can indeed improve the picture quality, success rate, Clarity.... etc. improved a lot.

If you import fusion to improve photography, you should be optimistic about it.

The pair of lens cameras were shown on the spot, but only on the screen.

The video recording function is turned on on the top, the BX0035 shows the new camera technology in the future, and the bottom is the previous generation model.

You can clearly see the difference between the two, and the dynamics of the rotation of the windmill blades and the reflection of the water waves, the lines are still clearly visible, and they are not blurred due to the high ISO.

The same is true for this birthday cake. The top is the high-sensitivity dual lens, the bottom is the existing model, and the dark box is also black and invisible.

The dual-lens and Fusion image chips were also displayed on the spot, but the dual-lens is a prototype, and the configuration of pixels, aperture, and configuration (wide-angle telephoto, ultra-wide-angle, color black and white... etc.) has not yet been revealed.

After that, how the configuration of SONY dual-lens mobile phone will affect the design will be announced.

ISO51200 is already a digital monocular level, and it is quite challenging to achieve it in a mobile phone.

For the high-sensitivity dual-lens released by SONY this time, two key points can be extended.

First, SONY finally launched a dual lens,

The second is to choose to shoot low light with high sensitivity as the unique selling point of their dual lenses.

After the meeting, we visited SONY Mobile UX product planning department head Kaz Tajima and mentioned,

SONY did not launch such a product when dual-lens mobile phones became popular, because it is generally used to take photos with lossless zoom and simulated bokeh. SONY can also do it with a single lens. Therefore, SONY did not provide these functions. Introduce dual-lens mobile phones under the trend.

(Editor’s supplement: For example, a 23-megapixel high-resolution crop is used to achieve lossless zoom, and background blur (bokeh) is also provided. This App can shoot simulated bokeh)

But why did it still come out? Because we want to further improve the quality of low-light photos.

In fact, SONY has been very committed to improving low-light shooting clarity and high ISO noise reduction on existing mobile phones, but just like the previous examples of landscapes and birthday cakes, when the light is extremely low, there is still a limit.

Generally speaking, there are several ways to make a mobile phone take ideal and clear photos in low light, such as increasing the aperture with anti-shake, increasing the unit pixel of the photosensitive element, but if the photosensitive element exceeds the current level, there are several methods. , it is necessary to increase the photosensitive element, which requires more space, but this conflicts with the limited space of the mobile phone. During the development process, the engineering team found that the dual lens can meet the limited space of the mobile phone, and provide the To maintain clear image quality and achieve the high sensitivity they want, they chose to use dual lenses for high sensitivity, and this will also become the unique feature that SONY dual lenses can provide.

Maybe we all focus on dual cameras, so we will always ask: everyone else is out, why isn't SONY out?

But in terms of sequence, SONY focused on "further solving low-light photography", and during the research and development process, it was found that dual lenses are a good solution, so it was launched. To a certain extent, SONY did not make dual lenses because there are such parts on the market, but considered the demand and launched dual lenses in order to solve a certain demand.

(The following is the editor's OS, if you don't like it, you can skip it: In fact, using a dual-lens mobile phone to shoot a bokeh that simulates a single eye, and zooming photos without cropping, is also a certain demand of consumers. SONY has not been able to meet this earlier. Demand is a pity.

Personally, I have a small impression, whether I should insist on not following the trend, I don't know... But

This time, the Galaxy S9 also launched 960fps ultra-slow-motion photography, but they found that people usually don’t respond quickly when shooting, and added a trap shutter function to improve and solve this problem. The user only needs to press the record button, and the slow-motion moment The software will automatically capture it for you, without the need for a second button. In terms of operating experience, I think it is better than the Xperia's super slow motion, and it actually retains the Xperia's manual shooting method.

In this way, although following the trend will be sour, if you can follow to solve your pain points and do what you failed to do, it is also a move to follow the trend. )

Back to the topic...

However, the chances of taking pictures in extremely low light in life are always less than taking pictures in low light indoors or at night. .

The windmill scenery and the birthday cake that we saw at the scene were still framing pictures, not the film after shooting. What will happen to the final product processed by software, we will wait and see.

As for why the focus is on improving the proposition of low-light photography. In fact, this is also an area that all mobile phone manufacturers have encountered and have been trying to improve. Mr. Tian Shima also mentioned that SONY has observed that there is still room for improvement in the low light shots taken by many mobile phones, and users also hope that mobile phones can be more convenient to shoot. Prettier in low light, so it's not hard to see why SONY put the dual-lens focus on low-light photography.

However, this solution seems to require technology and computing power. For mid-range mobile phones, it may not be able to afford the required performance and cost. Mr. Tianjima said that at present, the team only designs high-sensitivity dual lenses for high-end models. How to make dual cameras is another topic to be discussed. It is still too early for this next stage of work, and there is not much information to disclose.

I think the new super flagship will have 4K HDR at the same time, and this super-sensitivity shooting function, coupled with the new image processor, there should also be a new BIONZ for mobile algorithm, so that the new flagship can take great pictures. dynamic range, and the ability to control noise.

Of course, there are many shooting methods that dual-lens can provide. For those existing dual-lens applications, whether SONY will do it, how to do it if it can, etc., it is a topic that will be decided next time.