iPhone 6s Rear Camera Rumored to Retain 8-Megapixel Sensor

"I'm only upgrading from the X to the Xs for the better camera" - said nobody

actually a lot of people say that...

More megapixels = more noise. Glad Apple isn't giving in to the dumb pressure to make a noisier, crappier camera. Smartphone sensors are not large enough to accommodate more megapixels without introducing a ton of noise.

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5S has the same megapixel camera as the 5. So...what tradition?

They haven't bumped the megapixels since the 4S for a good reason. At the tiny sizes of smartphone sensors, introducing more megapixels degrades image quality and makes for noisier pictures. Apple know what they are doing.

That would be a huge disappointment and break away from S tradition.
Maybe they will shrink the camera hump back into the frame.

Apple should keep the specs same too while they are at it.

5S has the same megapixel camera as the 5. So...what tradition?

I love the iPhone's camera - don't get me wrong - but good god this must be a joke.

As evidenced by numerous camera improvements in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, a higher-megapixel sensor does not always matter. Apple could still implement this rumored dual-lens, DSLR-quality system with 8-megapixel sensors on its next-generation smartphones.

"I'm only upgrading from the X to the Xs for the better camera" - said nobody

Since storage is fixed, I don't think people would be to happy about running out of storage twice as fast just so their lowrez socialmedia sharings can have a larger original they will never use..

The amount of people who print larger than A3 (11.69 x 16.53 inches) from a phone are still quite few. :)

Give me the things the others don't: Dynamic range, correct colors, good lowlight performance and good IS.

Please don't let us return to the days of MP wars. More mp after a certain point is NOT better, it just uses more space. Now better lenses, that is what we always need...

Got to save something for the iPhone 7

I love the iPhone's camera - don't get me wrong - but good god this must be a joke.

The sensor pixel pitch is often ignored in these discussions while it matters perhaps the most. A smaller pixel size introduces noise and reduces the dynamic range (the range between dark and bright without blowing out the colors).

From great to bad (green = actual cameras for comparison):

* Sony A7s: 8.4 (or more?) microns
* Fujifilm X100: 5.48 microns
* Canon G1X Mark III: 4.50 microns
* Panasonic LX100: 4.21 microns
* Nikon D3200: 3.85 microns
* Sony RX100: 2.41 microns
* HTC One: 2 microns
* iPhone 6: 1.5 microns
* iPhone 5s: 1.5 microns
* iPhone 5: 1.4 microns
* Motorola Moto X: 1.4 microns
* Nokia 808 PureView: 1.4 microns
* Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: 1.34 microns
* Sony Xperia Z1: 1.17 microns
* Nokia Lumia 1020: 1.12 microns
* Samsung Galaxy S4: 1.12 microns
* iPhone 6 with a 13 MP camera: 0.92 microns

The RX100 is considered really good, but pushing it in terms of megapixel count. I think it's really kind of on the verge of what you can pull out of its 1" sensor. The Nikon D3200 is a budget APS-C DSLR where Nikon has probably went a bit too far with the megapixel output. It falls below even a micro 4/3 camera pixel size; the LX100 above. The Fujifilm X100 has a pretty large pixel size for being an APS-C camera at 12 megapixels. The Sony A7s is a king of high ISO performance, and a full frame camera.

I went with the iPhone 6 resolution of 3264*2448 pixels. If it had a 13 MP camera instead, the resolution would be 5304 pixels wide. I put that hypothetical camera into the list above. Sure, it would be workable with a good image processor and algorithms, but we wouldn't go crazy about any photo quality improvements. Apple would at best manage to cram out similar quality, perhaps a little bit worse.

A way to compensate is to bump the physical camera sensor size, but with the camera protuding even on the iPhone 6 version, I honestly don't see how pushing the resolution further is something we'll see happen soon. Especially not if users actually disliked the bulge. They'll be hard at work to get rid of it, even with the current sensor size!