HTC mobile phones to feature optical zoom 12-18 months

[kcchi]

HTC's imaging specialist Symon Whitehorn talked about some amazing plans concerning their mobile camera technology in their upcoming smartphones. Will HTC be able to live up to their words or will we be seeing another failed attempt at it like the S4 and S5 ''optical zoom''?

 

"As smartphones have become people’s primary camera, we expect more of them. That’s why we’ve put so much investment into the camera – because smartphone cameras take the majority of our images now. We already outperform a lot of compact point and shoot cameras, but we want to approach the performance of regular cameras".

"Optical zooming in a smartphone is not too far off at all for HTC. I can’t give too much away, but within 12-18 months we’ll see huge advances in phone optics"           - Symon Whitehorn

 

With what they have been doing in the mobile market lately, if they can pull it off, hats off HTC

 

Source: http://hexus.net/ce/news/mobile-phones/68845-htcs-2015-mobiles-feature-cameras-optical-zoom/

[Mo5]

If the text wouldn't be white it would help...

Anyway, I've been waiting for this for ages

[kcchi]

If the text wouldn't be white it would help...

Anyway, I've been waiting for this for ages

When i copy pasted the quotes, the text was black; since i'm using night theme, changed it to white. Forgot about day theme. I made it grey, should be slightly better. Sorry bout that

[Kyuubixchidori]

Just wondering how this will effect the thickness of phones. everyone wants SUPER THIN phones. but the lens? have you ever fit a dlsr? glass and lens, you can only shrink so much. curious to what they do. its not shrinkable like normal tech. 

[dizmo]

I hope they also up the megapixel count on their sensor. Sorry HTC but your 4mp camera is garbage compared to the competition. Adding optical zoom isn't going to change that.

 

 

this optical zoom tech arrival means that HTC isn't interested in "doing a high-resolution, photo enlarging solution," like the Nokia PureView, for example.

I really hope he doesn't mean "we're keeping the 4mp camera because we told you it's better and we're sticking to it because we can't be wrong."

More mp matter. 4 is insufficient.

 

 

Whitehorn says that HTC are "trying to match the performance of dedicated cameras where one piece of glass inside it costs £3000 alone"

Even if, by some miracle you can make the image quality as good as a high end DSLR, it won't replace one. At least not for many decades.
There's ergonomics, as well as ease of use to consider. Not to mention sheer sensor size.

HTC worries me with their over reaching attitude.

[kcchi]

Just wondering how this will effect the thickness of phones. everyone wants SUPER THIN phones. but the lens? have you ever fit a dlsr? glass and lens, you can only shrink so much. curious to what they do. its not shrinkable like normal tech.

If they're able to make it thin enough so we dont feel like we're holding a brick, even if its significantly thicker ,I believe the tech inside alone should make people interested enough to buy

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk

[Kyuubixchidori]

If they're able to make it thin enough so we dont feel like we're holding a brick, even if its significantly thicker ,I believe the tech inside alone should make people interested enough to buy

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk

I personally would buy it for a nice camera. Especially if it came close to DLSR quality. nothing will match a dedicated device like that, but if we can get closer. 

 

phones now are not really improving. yeah, they are. but a galaxy s3 from 2012 works just fine in todays world. 2 years before that? huge leaps of changes. making the camera better is one of the few improvements company's can do right now thats noticeable. 

[Misanthrope]

I hope they also up the megapixel count on their sensor. Sorry HTC but your 4mp camera is garbage compared to the competition. Adding optical zoom isn't going to change that.

 

My thoughts exactly: I don't see why they have the balls to even talk about cameras when theirs sucks so fucking much and they didn't even bothered to address it for the new phone: I mean first try ok, they were trying something new with that "ultra pixel" nonsense. But another fucking phone with a crap camera? And they dare to talk about "optical zoom"? For what your polaroid level crap on your phones?

[LAwLz]

My thoughts exactly: I don't see why they have the balls to even talk about cameras when theirs sucks so fucking much and they didn't even bothered to address it for the new phone: I mean first try ok, they were trying something new with that "ultra pixel" nonsense. But another fucking phone with a crap camera? And they dare to talk about "optical zoom"? For what your polaroid level crap on your phones?

To be fair, the HTC One had a pretty good camera when it first launched. It couldn't match the Galaxy S 4 or most other flagships in scenes with a lot of light but I thought it was a good move to address low light scenarios (which have been neglected and even gone backwards a bit). They really should have continued to improve the camera though, not made it worse like they did with the M7 -> M8.

Optical zoom might be nice in a phone, but how are they going to achieve that? Doesn't it take up a lot of space? Even if they manage to do it, like dizmo said their current camera isn't that great so they really need to do more improvements than just zoom to make it good.

 

I can't wait for MWC 2015. This year it was a big disappointment but it should be a lot better next year.

[Victorious Secret]

Zoom is not the issue. It never has been.

 

Its about the optics and sensor. A shitty sensor with piss poor glass is still shit when it has a zoom. Now you just get magnified shit. 

 

There is a reason zoom lenses (worth anything that is) cost a lot of money. 

 

I'd rather they focus on beefy sensors and better fixed optics with better f/stops than I do about having camera bulge because of a useless zoom.

[dizmo]

My thoughts exactly: I don't see why they have the balls to even talk about cameras when theirs sucks so fucking much and they didn't even bothered to address it for the new phone: I mean first try ok, they were trying something new with that "ultra pixel" nonsense. But another fucking phone with a crap camera? And they dare to talk about "optical zoom"? For what your polaroid level crap on your phones?

I know...I really want to buy an M8. I think it's an excellent device. But I'm selling my DSLR and won't have money for a decent pocket camera for probably 6 or 7 months.

Therefore the phone I get has to have at least a very decent camera. This, according to the numerous reviews I've seen, doesn't even manage that.

 

To be fair, the HTC One had a pretty good camera when it first launched. It couldn't match the Galaxy S 4 or most other flagships in scenes with a lot of light but I thought it was a good move to address low light scenarios (which have been neglected and even gone backwards a bit). They really should have continued to improve the camera though, not made it worse like they did with the M7 -> M8.

Optical zoom might be nice in a phone, but how are they going to achieve that? Doesn't it take up a lot of space? Even if they manage to do it, like dizmo said their current camera isn't that great so they really need to do more improvements than just zoom to make it good.

 

I can't wait for MWC 2015. This year it was a big disappointment but it should be a lot better next year.

They probably figured out a way to cram it into a very small enclosure. It'll definitely be bigger, but the Nokia 1020 has a pretty large camera hump. We won't be talking 4x or 5x optical, but I could see 2x or 3x.

I agree, MWC was a bust. The S5 was a huge disappointment. However the second half of the year is looking pretty promising. The LG G3 sounds like an absolute beast, the OnePlus One sounds like an excellent Nexus killer.

The Oppo phones were nice...albeit too large for my taste.

 

Zoom is not the issue. It never has been.

 

Its about the optics and sensor. A shitty sensor with piss poor glass is still shit when it has a zoom. Now you just get magnified shit. 

 

There is a reason zoom lenses (worth anything that is) cost a lot of money. 

 

I'd rather they focus on beefy sensors and better fixed optics with better f/stops than I do about having camera bulge because of a useless zoom.

I'd love to see them cram a micro 4/3 sensor into a phone. Even if it was a little fatter like the 1020, it would be pretty decent.

Camera tech has come along way so I don't see why there won't be some major advances in the years to come.

Look at how cell phones have already destroyed the pocket camera market.