Samsung has announced a new photo and video sensor for smartphones from its Isocell series. The HP2 model is said to be in series production, and will thus appear on the market before the HP3, which was introduced half a year ago.
In contrast to the HP3, which has a 1/1.4-inch sensor, the HP2 is designed with a 1/1.6-inch format. As Samsung promises, it should also fit into smartphones designed for the previous 108-megapixel sensor from the same manufacturer without additional optics. As with this, the electronics dominate the function of pixel binning.
Pixel binning for photos and videos
Either four or sixteen adjacent pixels of 0.6 microns each are combined into one effective pixel, with the resolution then being reduced to 50 or 12.5 megapixels. This not only corresponds more closely to the optical resolution of smartphone lenses, but should also enable better images, especially in difficult lighting conditions. Samsung doesn’t mention this explicitly, but such techniques benefit the noise behavior in particular. Samsung calls its binning “Tetra²Pixel”.
The contrast autofocus has also been given a marketing name, Samsung calls it “Super QPD”. Four pixels each form a measuring point to detect horizontal or vertical contrast differences. As with pixel binning, the many pixels are also used for HDR shots, and there are several modes: With 50 megapixels, two ISO values are used for one exposure, and with “Smart ISO Pro” there are more than two – that’s exactly what Samsung says it doesn’t – and it results in 12.5 megapixel images or 4K video at 60 fps. The maximum video resolution is 8K at 30 FPS.
Mastered as an apparently newly developed feature the HP2 the so-called “Dual Vertical Gate Transfer” (D-VTG). There is another gate below the photodiode for each pixel, so that 33 percent more electrons can be stored. Samsung mainly expects less overexposure in particularly bright image areas.
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