Samsung представил новый 50-Мп датчик изображения ISOCELL GN2 с размером каждого пикселя 1,4 мкм. 1/1,12-дюймовый фотосенсор позволяет делать снимки с разрешением до 100Мп путём объединения кадров, созданных в 3-х отдельных слоях по 50Мп в зелёном, синем и красном цветах. Также за счёт объединения соседних пикселей можно получать изображения высокого качества в условиях низкой освещённости, используя увеличенные до 2,8 мкм пиксели.
ISOCELL GN2 — первый датчик изображения Samsung, предлагающий возможности автофокусировки с определением фазы, что значительно улучшает качество работы камеры в условиях низкого освещения. Новый сенсор обеспечивает снижение энергопотребления на 24% по сравнению с режимом HDR, реализованном в датчике предыдущего поколения. ISOCELL GN2 позволяет снимать Full HD видео со скоростью 480 кадров в секунду или 4К-видео со скоростью 120 кадров в секунду. Датчик уже запущен в серийное производство, и в скором времени его можно будет увидеть в новых моделях смартфонов Samsung и других производителей.
Samsung Introduces 1.4μm 50Mp ISOCELL GN2 with Faster and More True-to-Life Auto-Focusing
Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, introduced Samsung ISOCELL GN2, a new 50-megapixel (Mp) image sensor with large 1.4-micrometer (μm)-sized pixels. With enhancements to its predecessor, the ISOCELL GN1, the GN2 offers up to 100Mp imaging, improved auto-focusing through Dual Pixel Pro technology, powerful staggered HDR, and vivid results through Smart ISO Pro, regardless of the lighting environment.
“ISOCELL image sensors and its technologies have made vast improvements to deliver the quality and performance one would expect from top-tier prograde cameras,” said Duckhyun Chang, executive vice president of sensor business at Samsung Electronics. “Our new ISOCELL GN2 features Dual Pixel Pro, an innovative all-direction auto-focusing solution that elevates the agility to capture moments as they unfold. Adding on Smart ISO Pro and a variety of advanced pixel technologies, pictures from GN2 are more true-to-life than ever.”
The 1/1.12-inch ISOCELL GN2 is a highly versatile image sensor when it comes to image resolutions. With 50 million 1.4μm-sized pixels on hand, the GN2 offers exceptionally detailed photographs in regular settings. In low-lit environments such as indoors, the sensor can simulate a larger 2.8μm-pixel with four-pixel-binning technology to absorb more light, delivering brighter and sharper images.
For those who appreciate more detail in photographs or are prone to post-processing such as image cropping, the GN2 offers an option to take pictures in 100Mp resolutions. In 100Mp mode, the GN2 meticulously re-arranges the color pixels using an intelligent re-mosaic algorithm, creating three individual layers of 50Mp frames in green, red and blue. These frames are then up-scaled and merged to produce a single ultra-high 100Mp resolution photograph.
The ISOCELL GN2 is Samsung’s first image sensor to offer Dual Pixel Pro, the company’s most advanced phase-detection auto-focus solution yet. By employing two photodiodes within every pixel of the image sensor, Dual Pixel Pro makes use of one hundred million phase detecting agents for ultra-fast auto-focusing. In addition, the solution also offers all-direction focusing by splitting the pixels not only vertically, as with Dual Pixel, but also diagonally. This diagonal cut allows the focusing agents to better recognize the top and bottom of the frame, allowing the sensor to get in focus quickly even when there are no pattern changes in a horizontal direction. Low-light focusing and tracking of moving objects are improved as well, as every pixel of the sensor works as focusing agents.
For taking pictures in mixed-light environments, such as sunsets or indoors with daylight coming through a window, the GN2 increases its dynamic range with a staggered-HDR feature, a time-multiplexed HDR technology that uses rolling shutters over the same pixel arrays to capture multiple frames in short, middle, and long exposures. By maximizing the dynamic range, staggered-HDR ensures rich detail and vivid color in highlights and dark shadows within the scene, making it an ideal solution for shooting high-contrast sights. Staggered-HDR is able to reduce the energy consumption of a sensor by up to 24-percent when compared to the predecessor’s real-time HDR mode, contributing to improved energy efficiency of the overall system.
The GN2 also comes with Smart ISO and Smart ISO Pro. Smart ISO intelligently sets the sensor’s conversion gain, allowing the picture to be taken using an optimal ISO; low ISO for brighter outdoors or high for dimmer indoors. Unlike Smart ISO, which uses readouts from a single ISO per picture, Smart ISO Pro, which uses an intra-scene dual conversion gain (iDCG) solution, takes readouts from both high and low ISO to instantly create high dynamic range images with less motion-artifacts. In addition, in extreme low-light, Smart ISO Pro quickly takes and processes multiple frames in high ISO, raising the light sensitivity close to one-million ISOs and taking mobile night photography to greater heights.
Camera experiences can be more fun and creative with the GN2, where precious moments can be captured more dramatically and everyday events can be turned into short videos. The GN2 supports full-HD videos at 480 frames-per-second (fps) or 4K at 120fps, enabling wider possibilities for mobile video-shooting.
Samsung ISOCELL GN2 is currently in mass production.
Dual Pixel Pro: Improved Autofocus to Allow you to Capture Every Precious Moment
Whether you’re trying to photograph rapidly occurring action or just a happy moment with friends, there are few camera features that impact both the user experience and final results as much as autofocus. A pillar of mobile photography technology, autofocus ensures that you can capture the moment just as it happened and produce crisp, shareable images.
To make sure that you never miss a moment, Samsung has further improved its autofocus technology with an entirely new system that delivers tack-sharp images in every snap. This system is called Dual Pixel Pro.
What is Phase Detection Autofocus?
To understand how Dual Pixel Pro works, it is important to first understand its foundational technology, Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF).
Just like humans use their two eyes to focus, PDAF works by comparing the phase differences in images generated by left-looking and right-looking pixels, which allows the camera to calculate the focus distance, or the place where the two phases align.
Conventional phase detection systems use special, dedicated autofocus pixels embedded throughout the sensor, typically making up just a small portion of the total pixels. To create the left-looking and right-looking images for comparison, half of each pixel is blocked with metal so that they pick up light from just one side of the lens. Using a larger number of these dedicated autofocus pixels can make phase detection faster, but also can reduce the amount of light captured, resulting in loss of image quality. That is where Dual Pixel technology takes autofocus to the next level.
Leveraging Every Pixel with Dual Pixel Autofocus
With Samsung’s Dual Pixel technology, every pixel on the sensor is used for phase detection, while simultaneously receiving color information, greatly improving both the speed and accuracy of autofocus compared to conventional systems.
Each pixel on a Dual Pixel sensor contains two photodiodes, one left-looking, one right-looking. When capturing a scene, the phases from each pair of photodiodes are compared to achieve autofocus in just milliseconds. Since every pixel in the sensor is being used for both autofocus and color values, the sensor can achieve snappy autofocus without losing image quality.
Dual Pixel Pro Delivers Next-Gen Autofocus
Dual Pixel Pro takes autofocus to a new level. It uses green pixels that divide photodiodes with a diagonal structure. These diagonally-split pixels compare the phase differences between the top and bottom of the pixel in addition to phase differences in the left and right sides.
As a result, Dual Pixel Pro delivers fast and accurate autofocus even under difficult conditions, such as low-lighting or fast-moving subjects. It also addresses certain limitations of Dual Pixel technology, which struggles to differentiate between the left and right sides of patterns such as parallel horizontal stripes. The addition of top and bottom phase detection means your camera can better distinguish these patterns, making it capable of quickly grabbing focus even when your subject is wearing a patterned shirt with horizontal lines.
From the glance of a loved-one, to an awe-inspiring firework display, our most precious memories are often fleeting. ISOCELL image sensors armed with the Dual Pixel Pro autofocus system ensure your favorite moments will never pass you by again.
