The iPhone 15 is set to come armed with Sony’s latest state-of-the-art image sensor, which will make for a huge upgrade in low-light photography performance.
Low light photography has always been a struggle for smartphones with smaller sensors and lens apertures being a pain point that needed a workaround of holding the phone steady for a few seconds. This may help dramatically reduce the time you need to wait and increase the amount of detail captured in low light.
Reported by Nikkei, the agreement was made between Apple and Sony towards the end of last month to maintain the latter’s leading global share in smartphone photography image sensors.
Snap happy
Sony Semiconductor Solutions has developed a new image sensor that roughly doubles the saturation signal level in each pixel. On paper, that sounds like more color, but in practice, it actually allows the camera to capture dramatically more light and cut down on an under or overexposure.
This is done by putting the photodiodes and transistors on separate layers. Normally, they are integrated into the same layer, which compromises the sensor’s ability to catch light. This means it will make for a significant increase in low-light performance.
Alongside this, Apple has been working on several other camera upgrades for the iPhone 15, from a periscope photo lens to dual selfie snappers on the front for the iPhone 15 Ultra.
Outlook
While the camera upgrades have been notable for the iPhone 14 Pro, all signs point to the iPhone 15 for both a redesign and a thorough upgrade to the shooters.
This update to the main camera should eliminate any concerns about night photography. With the 48MP sensor (in my experience) producing some slightly grainier shots (more pixels = less light being let into the sensor), this new sensor tech should eliminate that.
One thing’s for sure, the iPhone 15 is starting to tick all my boxes from a photographer's point of view.
