By Samsung often takes to their Samsung Tomorrow blog to announce new hardware innovations that they claim will arrive in future devices. You may remember back in September of last year that Samsung announced a new 8MP CMOS image sensor for “premium” mobile devices dubbed ISOCELL. While ISOCELL is said to improve images in well lit environments (where there’s a big difference in dynamic range), but what about when a flash is absolutely necessary to illuminate dark subjects? Samsung’s got you covered.
We know, smartphones cameras with LED flashes aren’t known for creating the most stellar photos. More than often, subjects are blown out, and come out looking a tinge of green. Today, Samsung is introducing several new types of LED flashes that will debut in high-end mobile devices later this year because, well… any new advancements are sure to help.
The first is an LED flash they’re calling a “reflector-integrated flash LED” and will debut in the Samsung Galaxy S5. It basically shoots light in a wider field of view to compensate for our smartphone cameras wide FOV. This ensures light reaches to the far edges of the image, which should come in handy when flash is needed. Samsung also says the color rendering has also been improved, making the flash function well in both daylight and nighttime shots.
Samsung also talked about their affordable “standard flash LED 2016” which is said to offer better light output and better color than LEDs found on current smartphones. Lastly, Samsung introduced their upcoming “side view LEDs” which are said to be more power efficient and given their small footprint (.8mm thick), makes them perfect for the growing trend of thinner smartphones and tablets.
Samsung says they’ll begin mass producing their new LEDs in March, where you can expect to find them popping up inside devices sometime in Q2.
Fancy
He saved every one of us.
If manufacturers would just move the flash away from the lens it would fix 90% of the flash problems. Lens on one side flash on the other would be perfect.
That still wouldn’t fix the problem with LED Flash units in smartphones. It’s a matter of spreading the light out from a uniform flat surface. Near impossible. But if any company can do that, it’s Samsung. They invented the LED TV screen and supply 40% of the World’s LCD Panel supply.
Most other forms of light require a vacuum chamber or gas medium to reflect light and amplify it through passive means. On a phone you don’t have the area/space to do that in. So Samsung has utilized a solid heat resistant form of their Infino brand plastic with reflective particles and a yellow reflective back ground to modify the color of the light given off. This tunes the frequency to a more natural light good in both day and night.
Don’t forget Samsung is one of the largest LED manufacturer in the World. Not only do they make LED lights for use in household lighting fixtures, but they supply nearly all laser diodes going into BluRay players, etc. Have since the 90’s and nearly all Sony’s PS3 and PS4 BluRay Diodes are originally sourced from Samsung and rebranded!
They supple the World with many forms of Led lighting going into cars, homes, medical products, etc:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/led/
I think they know more about lighting than you do! ;-P
ISOCell is what I really want!
Must we focus photo flashes to LEDs instead of what real cameras use? Sony did it with at least one model – real flash on the camera
Real Flash? lol… are you joking! …..this is as REAL AS IT GETS…. you fool and don’t look now, but Samsung helped push Sony out of TV’s and PC’s with better products. Don’t look now, but Sony just lost their biggest customer…. in Samsung. Who is spending more money on R&D and advancing innovation faster in cameras than Sony ever has!
You do know that Sony is still using LED’s too. Because a Xenon Flash would kill battery life in a heart beat! ;-P