For those who are unaware, Sony is actually pretty prominent behind the scenes when it comes to supplying OEMs with camera components for their phones. In fact one of Sony’s more notable customers is Apple in which Sony provides the sensors for the iPhone. That being said, Sony has a new sensor that they have announced.
The sensor comes in the form of the IMX318 and it is of the 22.5MP variety. According to Sony, it is the industry’s first stacked CMOS image sensor that comes with a built-in hybrid autofocus and 3-axis electronic image stabilization. What does this mean? This means that OEMs who use this sensor won’t need to rely on additional components for image stabilization, for starters.
Secondly, its hybrid autofocus system essentially combines contrast based and phase detection autofocusing. Prior to this, a separate application processor was required to achieve this, but since Sony has created a hybrid inside one chip, it could potentially mean smaller/thinner handsets. Sony is also boasting 0.03 seconds to autofocus for stills, and 0.017 for video.
It is unclear as to which phones, tablets, or even drones will be taking advantage of this sensor, but we expect that they will be unveiled later this year. In the meantime you can see the sensor in action in the videos above and below.
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