Sony's New High-End Smartphone Targets Photogs, Vloggers With Camera Tech
Sony today announced the Xperia I V(Opens in a new window), the fifth generation of its flagship smartphone series. The Xperia I has long relied on the same basic design language, which is to say that all the new stuff is buried within the glass-and-metal chassis.
Sony says(Opens in a new window) the primary improvement over the Xperia I IV is a brand-new, two-layer transistor pixel stacked CMOS image sensor, which the company is calling Exmor T for mobile. Fitted to the phone's main camera, it's 1.7 larger than the sensor of the I IV's camera and delivers twice the low-light performance and three times the amount of color saturation. At the same time, Sony is using revised image-processing techniques to suppress noise while also expanding the dynamic range to what it claims is the equivalent of a full-frame camera.
The new sensor means the Xperia I V is a photo and video beast. It features a triple-camera array arranged in a vertical column on the phone's rear panel. The main camera captures approximately 48MP images that are binned down by four to produce 12MP jpegs. It has an effective lens size of 24mm. The ultrawide camera has a 12MP sensor and a 16mm effective lens size and the telescoping telephoto camera has a 12MP sensor and an 85mm-125mm effective lens.
Beyond the camera hardware is an advanced suite of apps for capturing pictures and videos. The Photo Pro and Video Pro apps support eye-tracking focus, 30fps continuous shooting, the Creative Look filters from Sony's Alpha cameras, and S-Cinetone for accurate skin tones and textures. Vloggers will love the Product Showcase Setting, which maintains focus on a product in the presenter's hand rather than the presenter's face. Fresh mic placement and new vertical
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