About megapixels, number 41 and Jacques Fresco / UPD: added a demo video with a zoom and comparison with a soap box at the request of readers


    ▌ Instead of a preface




    First of all, I would like to clarify for whom this article was written and for what purpose.

    But first, a little background. At the end of last year, I bought myself the already sensational Nokia Lumia 1020 camera phone. Once at the university, when a friend of mine asked what a black round pancake stands on the back of my smartphone, I was inadvertently uttering the phrase:
    “Camera with resolution 41 megapixels . "

    The reactions of others did not have to wait long. Almost immediately, several people turned their eyes to the smartphone and, with a mockery, hinted to me that I was a suckervictim of advertising and marketing. In principle, the same picture can be observed on the Internet. It’s worth while some article about 1020 appears on the hub, so in the comments there will always be theorists who will smash this camera phone to smithereens.




    ▌ You don’t have to go far for an example, here is a small clipping of typical comments under any publication about 1020:




    Theorist №1
    #

    A little more research from theorist number 1




    Theorist №2
    #


    A little more research from theorist number 2



    Theorist №3
    #




    ОгLogic question: what does the author care about what others think?



    It just so happened that the author had a seizure: "People like offended people." In particular, Nokia.

    Yes, the company is not in the best position right now, yes, many do not like some of the decisions made by the management of the company, but, according to the author, this does not give reason to ignore the titanic work done by the company's engineers to move the mobile photo industry forward. However, unfortunately, due to distrust of the company after some events in the minds of users, it seemed that Nokia in desperation came up with a marketing ploy called “41 megapixels,” which in reality does not even give out a fraction of the declared level.



    ▌Who is this article intended for?



    • For those who agree with the opinion of the author and are convinced that the stated permission is real
    • For those who agree with the opinion of the author and sometimes have to explain why 41 megapixels is not stupid marketing for suckers
    • Accordingly, for those who were asked to read the material of this article during the holivar
    • Well, if you are ready to go a little further from theory directly to practice and see live photos


    No, this is not an advertising article, just the author is sincerely surprised by the capabilities of 1020 and wants to share his observations with others. Yes, sometimes it happens. You will not be forced to run to the store right after reading and buy a camera phone.



    ▌ And how is the author going to demonstrate the capabilities of the camera?



    Unlike most Internet theorists, the author mastered holding a subject in his hands, taking photographs for him and studying these very megapixels under a microscope.


    What does the theorist tell us?


    Okay, in this article we will only check the question: how realistic are the declared 41 MPs, we will omit the artistic side, since this is already a matter of direct hands and a long search for a decent shot.

    Attention, all photos were taken in cloudy winter weather without a tripod, with hands.




    What does practice show?

    But she shows this:

    Scale 100%


    Scale 25%


    Scale 12.5%


    Full frame:


    Compare:


    But, of course, this will not be enough for theorists. Let's increase the letters in Photoshop to 1000% and what will we see there?


    For such a resolution of the image, the lines of letters in the word "SOVIET" barely fit within one or two pixels from this distance to the object. For example, in the letter “I” the first vertical stick has a width of only 2 pixels. On average, each letter of the inscription in width takes only 7-9 pixels. I don’t know about you, but in my opinion this is critically small in order to convey the information in the photo, but, nevertheless, the inscription can be read at a photo scale of 1: 1.

    And again, the matrix and optics are capable of transmitting a small letter on the edges of their 1-2 pixels, while all this is removed from the hands and stabilization, in addition to everything, keeps the projection of the shooting subject strictly on the matrix. The slightest trembling projection on the matrix and you can no longer see the details between the pixels.

    No one forces you to take a word for everything. You can safely download the original file and personally study everything:
    View the original photo in FullRes, 10 MB , Download from Yandex.Disk .



    Well, what happens to the picture at the edges of the frame?

    And indeed, theorists did not forget to mention this remark, describing the unreality of such a huge resolution around the entire perimeter of the frame:



    What happens in practice with the edges of the frame?


    Scale 100%


    Scale 25%


    Scale 12.5%


    Full frame:


    Compare:


    And again, let's take this opportunity and increase the number to 1000%


    Again, the matrix captures information on the edges of 1-2 pixels. Against the background of a frame width of 7712 pixels when shooting in cloudy weather without a tripod, it seems incredible to the author personally.

    And again there is the opportunity to download the original and personally verify what’s what:
    Download the original photo in FullRes from Yandex.Disk, 15 MB



    ▌ Well, let's convince, but why do you need such a huge resolution? Print A0 posters?



    I dare to suggest that the above examples have closed the topic of the impossibility of the existence of such a huge resolution. The logical question: where so many megapixels?

    Briefly, the main advantages of this approach:
    1. Oversampling technology that allows you to make a photo with an extremely small amount of noise from a 41-megapixel 5MP frame. From 6-7 “noisy” pixels, one “pure” pixel is combined, which contains a peculiar arithmetic average of “noisy” pixels. This is best demonstrated in the following video:


    2. The ability to perform digital zoom up to 5X when shooting photos and videos without loss of quality and at the same time not to make a giant like Galaxy Zoom
    3. Ability to crop a photo after taking a photo
    4. The same oversampling allows you to shoot HD video with 6x zoom without loss of quality.
      An example of a video shot by the author at 1020. Watch in HD.

      View and download video in original quality on Yandex.Disk (150 MB).




    ▌With direct arms, 41 megapixels can be a very good assistant to the photographer




    The photo was taken on the Lumia 1020. Other photos on the sav-in photographer’s blog

    Nobody claims that since there are so many megapixels in a smartphone, you will take masterpieces with the click of a button. It's like buying a Yamaha piano for $ 30,000. You can play murka with one finger on it, or you can give a professional and enjoy the incredible sound of the instrument. In the case of DSLRs, the story is the same. Having bought a DSLR for 30k and shooting in auto mode, you will not achieve a strong difference between your pictures and those that were captured with a 9k soap dish



    ▌And there is one thing



    In conclusion of this article, I would like to recall the words of the outstanding engineer and inventor Jacques Fresco, who during one of his speeches expressed a rather interesting idea about the language in which we communicate today.



    Of course, in today's era of advertising and marketing it is quite difficult to track and study in detail all new technological delights. Sometimes there is too much marketing and frank nonsense, but sometimes it’s worthwhile to make exceptions, and then maybe you are lucky and you will discover something completely new.

    ▌Update



    Some readers have asked for a comparison with a soap box. Since the author does not have soap dishes at hand, your gaze is offered a comparison from one side view.


    Dear authoritative resource www.ixbt.com, conducted its review of the Lumia 1020 and presented a comparison of photographs of the camera phone and the Canon PowerShot G15 compact camera with an average cost of 13k . View full text and photographs of a comparison review .






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