How can smartphones have so many megapixels? Pixel binning explained
Smartphones,mobile tech,Android,mobile photography,mobile,iPhone,phones,android reviews,phone reviews,tech reviews,tech,smartphone reviews
Pixel Binning is one of the key techniques that allow smartphone manufacturers to pack more and more pixels into its cameras every year. But how does it work? Why is it necessary? Find out in this video which goes over the basics.
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00:00 Introduction
0:35 What is a pixel?
1:58 What is pixel binning?
3:08 What are the advantages of pixel binning?
3:35 What phones use pixel binning?
4:01 What phones DON’T use pixel binning?
4:11 What is the disadvantage of pixel binning?
4:56 Conclusion
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#smartphones #megapixels #Pixel #binning #explained
the solution is simple, lower the resolution ( 8 or 12MP is more than enough) and increase the sensor size.
this makes no sense. the question to answer is why splitting the available sensor surface into 50 or 200 pixels is advantageous over just using larger pixels if you pixel bin and just provide 12MP pics at the end. My canon r5 has 45MP, my Google 6 claims to have 50. loading the raws into Lightroom you see the real quality. the ultra high MP of phones are just marketing bs to win the spec sheet war.
I’m here before it’s blow because of new iPhone
I still do not understand why the influencers are still not calling out bullsh*t on quad bayer and pixel bining…!
I am a professional photographer and I can explain why pixel bining and quad bayers are crap and do not provide ANY advantage over just having a 12MP sensor directly. You want high resolution in day time? then over sampling is the work around which still is crap but some how you have been trained to expect your tiny 1 inch smartphone camera to capture too much detail for posting it on social media. I do not have a YouTube channel so if you wanna know just email me.
You contradicted what you said in the first half of your video.
There is actually NO evidence to prove that pixel-binning actually reduces noise or improved low-light performance compared to just using an equivalent lower-resolution sensor with the same sensor size.
If you compare a sensor with 2 micrometer pixel pitch in 12MP mode to another sensor of the same size but with 1 micrometer pixels in 4X binning mode, even though the “maximum” resolution is 48MP, the shots taken in the 4xbinned 12MP mode will produce worse results because of the sub-pixel spacing needed for binning.
All you’re doing with pixel binning is diving the 2 micrometer pixels into 2x 1 micrometer pixels, but keeping the same resolution. There is NO benefit whatsoever to this technique, the light-gathering is actually worse in the 2xbinned sensor because the space between pixels is wasted, and there is no better noise reduction, the same noise is present regardless of wether your pixels are “normal” or divided into 4 chunks operating together in a binned pixel.
What pixel-binning actually does is tricks the consumer into believing the sensor is a higher megapixel count, when in reality the image quality is almost the same in the binned mode.
In reality, the light-gathering surface of a 8x6mm size 12MP sensor with 2 micron pixels is equal-to-or-less than a 8x6mm 48MP sensor with 1 micron pixels, because there is always some small space between the pixels.
Also. In daylight, the 48MP sensor in unbinned mode is still useless, because the diffraction limit is given by the lens, in smartphone the lenses are so small that the effective resolutions for tipical sensor sizes is limited to about 16–20MP at best.
It is physically impossible to resolve details beyond 16–20MP resolution on such small sensors (smaller than 1″) with lenses so small.
It is also impossible to resolve details fully on pixel-sizes less than 0.8 microns, since red light as a wavelength of 0.8 microns at max.
I guess Apple just jumped into the Pixel Binning bandwagon… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Can you tell from which smartphone pixel binning or oversampling method introduced ?????
Cameras that use pixel binning almost always don’t produce more details when using full-resolution mode. The reason is the quad-Bayer filter. Even though the sensor resolution is 48 MPx, it sits behind a 12 MPx color filter.
Therefore, the only benefit of high-resolution cameras with pixel binning is bragging rights. Smartphone manufacturers can market their cameras as high-resolution without producing terrible images in lower light.
i dont understand why smartphones company and sensors company don’t use oversampling method to capture photo or video
Literally didnt explain anything. “By combining 9 pixels into 1, smartphones are able to gather more light” WHY? For anyone actually interested why they do this: a diode (a physical pixel) will output a voltage level when exposed to light. Green/Blue/Red diodes can only sample light intensity, so no matter the color of the light, they output a high voltage if its high intensity, low voltage for low intensity. Having a larger diode, means it can catch more light => higher dynamic range, but because smartphone sensors are so small, you can only go so large, so if our dynamic range is 0–255, a large diode can read values from 50–150, but you can split that diode into 4 smaller ones, each tuned with a specific sensitivity (0–50,50–100,100–150,150–200). This way, instead of exposing an image for a longer time period to gather light in a big diode, you expose it for a small period, but each diode reads a different area of the wavelength.
That’s why manufacturers use pixel binning, so you don’t need a longer exposure time to get enough light to saturate a single diode (longer exposure time means more motion blur and you’ll have to wait for your phone to take a picture), rather you use smaller ones each sampling a different intensity. Also, keep in mind those diodes have some space between them that’s just wasted space as its not used for light gathering.
So it’s a 12MP sensor.
I think the explanation of Pixel binning could be better if you try and show an example.
Having a hard time trying to explain this myself to another person but they still are kind of glazed over when I explain it or shared this video (watching at the same time)
Maybe a picture example and then a close-up. I tried using this verbally but I think they cannot see the math so to speak about how this is done
Larger sensor is far better than pixel-binning
pixel-binning leads to blurry images
Higher pixels like 200mp on small sensors don’t improve image quality
It’s funny how stupid people think pixel-binning is better but in reality u are getting worse images 😂🤣
Nice video! FYI — Bayer is pronounced “Buyer”
I like how you dismantle these complex concepts keep it up man💪💪
Sony Xperia Pro I main camera uses only 12Mp and is best camera. Because pixel size is more important
What’s your IG
Elaborate explanation. Thank you