Samsung's 200MP image sensor, to be used in the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, stars in a new video
This July, Motorola is expected to release the first phone to use Samsung's 200MP ISOCELL HP1 camera sensor. The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is the name of the groundbreaking phone and the new image sensor (along with some timely advertising and promotion) should help the surging phone manufacturer ring up quite a few units of this eagerly awaited model.
The ISOCELL HP1 is a 200MP image sensor that will debut next month on the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra
About a week ago Samsung released a video revealing what the ISOCELL HP1 is capable of. The 83-second clip has been viewed 3.2 million times. By the way, Samsung wants you to know that "The depicted mobile device and user interface are fictitious creations. No simulation of any real products is intended." In other words, the phones and the operating system that you see in the video are not real and do not represent any Samsung device or software current or upcoming.
According to Samsung, the synopsis of the story behind the video is that "the image sensor engineers at Samsung Electronics have accepted a lofty challenge. They are trying to print a picture that was taken with ISOCELL's 200-megapixel (MP) mobile image sensor on an enormous canvas measuring 28 meters wide by 22 meters high (the photo was taken using a test board). That is one and a half times the size of an official NBA court.
In the heart of the city, the canvas is unfurled showing the breathtaking image of the cat with the iconic Samsung logo in the top right corner, and on the bottom you can see the words "Captured by ISOCELL." So exactly how did this challenge come about? Minhyuk Lee, an engineer from the Sensor Solutions Team at Samsung's System LSI Business," explained, "I have always wondered just how big you could go when it comes to printing out a 200MP image."
Lee went on to add that "as exciting as it was, the challenge was a demanding one, as this was our first time showcasing the quality of an image sensor that has yet to be adopted in smartphones." The team notes, "Choosing a cat as our subject was a difficult decision. It gave us a lot of obstacles to overcome, such as capturing such an active subject with a test board. However, the team concluded that the subject should be something that would show off a high level of detail and that was a popular photography subject at the same time."
Taking a photo with a 200MP image sensor allows a photo to be zoomed in on without losing image quality
Weighing in with his opinion, photographer Hyunjoong Kim said, "I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the raw image enlarged to 100%. I was truly astonished by the degree of detail. In that moment, I knew any prejudices I had previously had regarding smartphone photography had been proven wrong." The canvas was made up of 12 separate pieces of fabric each weighing in at 2.3 meter-long pieces of fabric (approximately 7 and a half feet each) which were stitched back together.
The image of the cat was transported using a truck and a crane was employed when it came time to unfurl the photo on the side of a building. Once the task was completed, Samsung's project leader noted, "When the picture was unfurled for the big reveal, the true enormousness of it really struck me, and not just because of its actual size. The moment I witnessed the 200 million pixels depicting the stunning detail of the cat’s eyes and fur, I was overwhelmed by all of the effort that had gone into developing this final product."
Creating a 200MP image sensor was not a project taken on by Samsung just because it could be done. Samsung's Kaeul and Minhyuk Lee said that "The ultimate benefit of the 200MP image sensor is to allow users to capture an image that can be zoomed in on and cropped without compromising on image quality. The 200MP image sensor will soon become the optimal solution for 8K video recording."
And if all goes as planned, consumers will get their first shot at using a camera backed by Samsung's 200MP image sensor when the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is released next month.
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