Sony is about to release a 1-inch image sensor for smartphones. This could be revolutionary, if only manufacturers can fit them in.
Sony's 1-inch smartphone sensor…
One-inch sensors are small by camera standards, they’re typically found in budget point-and-shoots, but they’re much larger than the sensors in smartphones. A bigger chip means better images, but there’s a reason they’re not in phones.
“One of the biggest problems for camera manufacturers so far has been finding ways to physically fit that technology into phones,” Brandon Ballweg of the photo tutorial site ComposeClick told Lifewire via email. “And generally speaking, the bigger the sensor, the bigger the lens needs to be.”
It’s easy enough to put a bigger sensor in a phone. The problem is with the lenses. A bigger sensor requires a bigger lens, and that lens usually has to be further away from the sensor.
