iPhone Camera Supplier Sony Investing $345 Million to Boost Image Sensor Production

They'll never fit of those in an iPhone ;-)

Is it me or does 68,000 wafers not sound a lot?

I assume 1 wafer per camera module?

Apple have supposedly ordered 60-80 million iPhone 6's right?

That would take over 66 years to fulfil the order?

:eek:

If they mean wafer like those use by Intel - they could put thousands in them

I disagree to an extent. Depending on what I am shooting I am not always in a staged environment and larger megapixels have permitted me to crop greatly a picture and still wind up with an excellent quality shot. Even in a large salon in a quinceanera during the dances it's not possible to be in all positions at once, things happen fast and even with one shot you can have several closeups of good quality. It makes a difference. In the early days of smaller megapixels it was not possible.

Granted, someone shooting staged shots will probably never need them, but my point is that what's right for some is not necessarily right for everyone. Bigger megapixel cameras DO have a place.

I would be happy with a 13 megapixel camera in the iphone just for these situations and I would rely on it more depending on the quality of course, but quality is getting very good on iphone cameras. It's a much better option than putting a protruding zoom on it. Just shoot and crop.

You really shouldn't be using a phone for pictures like these. DSLR is the only way to go.

Is it me or does 68,000 wafers not sound a lot?

I assume 1 wafer per camera module?

Apple have supposedly ordered 60-80 million iPhone 6's right?

That would take over 66 years to fulfil the order?

:eek:

68,000 wafers... Apple sells iPhones in the tens of millions, so it's pretty safe to say that when they talk about wafers they mean actual silicon wafer discs that can fit large numbers (thousands) of sensors onto each one.
I do like what Apple and Sony are doing regarding imaging. I mean they are always limited by form factor but given the size of the lenses and sensor the pictures being produced are nothing short of phenomenal. They've practically killed off point and shoots.

Although I think it would be nice to see a small bump in megapixels to say 13Mpx or so while retaining the larger sized pixels as I can't see it being long till 4k recording is mainstream - but any bigger is just a waste. My iPhone 5S produces excellent pictures and video but I'd always like to see improvements to focus, changing light (going from sunny outside to dark interior), improved audio recording, but to be fair it's already at the point of being an excellent all round devices for photos and video.

1080p120, 4k30 would be good to see on the 6, yes I know they use a lot of data but with the new HEVC it's not that bad and it's a good set of standards. Also 1080p60 by default for video would be ideal to help with motion blur which I find a tad annoying while recording on my 5S, although I love the 120fps feature, I just wish it was 1080p.

This is an example of a wafer. Many chips, or sensors in this case, per wafer.

Is it me or does 68,000 wafers not sound a lot?

I assume 1 wafer per camera module?

Apple have supposedly ordered 60-80 million iPhone 6's right?

That would take over 66 years to fulfil the order?

:eek: