Understanding smartphone cameras…

People on social media are constantly looking to click better pictures to upload to their growing online-photo collections. Buying an expensive smart phone may not be enough to up your game in photography, but a little research on camera specifications and nomenclature will go a long way in helping you select that perfect smart phone for your next photographic expedition.

Camera Glossary
Sensor: A sensor captures light and converts what you see into an image. It determines image size, resolution, low-light performance, depth-of-field, dynamic range and basically how good your photos look.

The quality of the image depends on the size of sensor, the number of pixels on it and the size of those pixels. For example: Samsung’s ISOCELL image sensor technology promises increased light sensitivity and higher colour fidelity in smartphones even in poor lighting conditions.

Aperture: The aperture (sometimes called focal ratio) of a camera is the ratio of the lens' focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil. It is a measure of lens speed, and provides the thrust to produce photos with better sharpness and clarity. The higher the focal ratio and the smaller the opening in the lens, the greater the depth of field and sharper the background of the photograph.

PDAF: Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) is currently the fastest method of focusing. It uses two sensor points to detect the phase difference in the light path and find the exact distance. It moves the lens to the correct focus point so that the camera produces high quality images. A few smartphones also use VCM ball bearing and closed loop technology in PDAF, which lets the user click a picture in less than 0.09th of a second.

Megapixel: This is a unit for measuring image resolution. The more the pixels in a picture, the more detailed the picture becomes. To put it simply, a single megapixel amounts to one million pixels in an image and is an indication of the camera's image quality or resolution. So photographs taken by a camera with higher megapixels will result in higher resolution images.

Resolution: This refers to the number of pixels in a camera sensor. A higher resolution means more pixels and more pixels provide the ability to display more visual information (resulting in greater clarity and more detail).

Autofocus: The Auto-Focus feature provides a camera with the ability to automatically focus on a subject correctly without the need of manual intervention from the user. This feature allows improved zoom shots and closer macro shots.

So don’t be camera shy, go ahead and research these terms so you have the right smart phone to click that award winning photo!