Samsung announced ISOCELL image sensor with 0.56μm pixel which is the smallest in the industry. As the camera size increases it gets harder to focus faster. OEMs have different solutions for faster auto focus such as laser auto focus or a dual pixel supported custom made sensors.
200 MP ISOCELL HP3’s pixels are 12% smaller than the previous sensor and it helps to reduce the camera module area by 20%. This helps to get things auto focused faster.
Samsung has been making high resolution sensors for years and Xiaomi is one of the OEMs which uses Samsung made image sensors. Samsung made 108 MP sensor in 2019.
ISOCELL HP3 features
Pixel size
- The ISOCELL HP3 has a 12% smaller pixel size than the predecessor’s 0.64μm. The sensor comes with 200 million pixels in 1/1.4″ optical format. 20% size decrease should be helpful at making the phones thinner.
Auto focus
- As Samsung calls new ISOCELL HP3 sensor packes “Super QPD” auto-focusing solution. Super QPD uses the lens over four-adjacent pixels for detecting the phase differences in both horizontal and vertical directions.
Video
- The sensor is capable of recording videos at 4K 120 FPS and 8K 30 FPS. Samsung claims a minimal crop will be applied on 8K videos as all the sensors but there is no info about the crop ratio during an 8K video recording.
Pixel binning
- The ISOCELL HP3 also provides an improved low light experience, with the Tetra pixel technology that combines four pixels into one to transform the 0.56μm 200MP sensor into a 1.12μm 50MP sensor, or a 12.5MP sensor with 2.24μm pixels by combining 16 pixels into one. This exists for simulating a sensor with larger sized pixels.
HDR
- As Samsung calls it this new ISOCELL HP3 sensor comes with “Smart-ISO Pro” feature. The technology merges one low ISO and another high ISO images. This technolgy has been upgrades in ISOCELL HP3 and now it uses a third image with an ISO level between high and low. The upgraded technology comes with low, mid and high ISO modes which is widening the dynamic range of the sensor. With the help of the Smart-ISO Pro feature, it makes sensor to create 14 bit images as predecessor of HP3 can handle only 12 bit images.
ISOCELL HP3 is already manufactured but the mass production will start later in this year.
