Do phones with the same camera sensor produce the same image quality?
Asked 4/13/2019
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If two smartphones use the same image sensor, such as Sony's IMX586, should they deliver the same photo quality? Or can image quality still differ because of lenses, processing, or other parts of the camera system?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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Note: This is a simplified answer. It does not go into detail, and therefore, please do not take it as authoritative answer on specifics about the exact processes that take place inside a digital camera.
The same sensor does not necessarily mean equal pictures. The sensor is one component of the whole process - the others are the analog-to-dicital-conversion (ADC) and the digital signalling processor (DSP) with its algorithms.
The sensor is 'just' a converter - it converts incoming light into electricity. The ADC then takes that electric signal and interprets according to a look-up table (i.e. a curve), as sensors are not perfectly linear, so there are dents and spikes in the signal that need to be corrected in order to get a picture that is close to the expectation of the user. The DSP then does de-noising and certain 'image enhancements'.
If any of these components change, the picture might look different.
Also note that one of the most important factors is the lens: focal length is a very important factor, and image quality can suffer greatly from an (extremely) bad lens.
Originally by user69369. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user69369
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
No. Sharing the same sensor does not guarantee the same image quality.
A phone camera is a system made up of at least three major parts: the lens/optics, the sensor, and the image processing pipeline. Even if two phones use the same sensor, they can still produce different results because:
- the lenses may differ in sharpness, focal length, aperture, and overall optical quality
- the analog-to-digital conversion and tuning may differ
- the image processor and software algorithms can differ a lot
- the camera app itself can change how images are rendered
In smartphones especially, processing has a huge effect on final image quality. Good computational photography can make a phone with similar or even lesser hardware produce better-looking photos.
So the same sensor means the cameras may have similar potential, but not necessarily the same real-world output.
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