Nokia Pushes the Limits of Smartphone Camera Tech

March 2, 2012

How many megapixels are too many to fit into your pants pocket? The correct answer, of course, is “there’s no such thing as too many megapixels!” To prove this point, Finnish phone-maker Nokia has announced that their newest smartphone, the 808 PureView, will contain a comically-high definition 41 megapixel censor. In addition to high-performance, on-board optics co-developed with famous lens-makers Carl Zeiss, the maddeningly high number of megapixels will allow 7 pixels worth of data to be captured and synthesized for every single viewable pixel, resulting in images that Nokia promises will be “the sharpest images imaginable.” Additionally, the 808 PureView’s high megapixel count will allow the ability to zoom without loss of clarity, meaning that once a picture is taken the user can crop and re-frame a photo without any loss of detail to speak of.

While the Nokia 808 PureView probably won’t make it into many users hands (it’s currently only available in Europe and runs Nokia’s dated Symbian mobile operating system), it signals a year of phone-camera advances that is sure to come to handsets from other major phone-makers. We know the technology exists; now it’s just a matter of getting it into the rest of 2012’s new phones.

 

Alexei Bochenek is a lifelong tech nerd & film buff based in Los Angeles. When he’s not playing with his phone, it’s because the movie has started. Shhhhh!