New smartphone announcements happen all the time. At DCR, we don’t tend to write about those announcements because out sister site, www.brighthand.com, covers all of the latest news in the smartphone industry. But the Samsung Galaxy S5 caught our eye due to the newly designed camera and its app.
The new Galaxy S5 has a whopping 16 megapixel sensor on its back camera (and a pretty standard 2.1 megapixel camera on the front). That back camera has more megapixels than Samsung’s S4 and Apple’s iPhone 5s. However, what caught out eyes more than the number of megapixels (because 16 megapixels doesn’t mean you’ll get a great image) was the speedy focus time of 0.3 seconds. That’s a pretty fast focusing little camera. But wait, there’s more! The Galaxy S5 now offer hybrid contrast detection and phase detection AF. This is a big deal. This kind of AF is generally seen on high end cameras. Utilizing both types of AF will allow the user to more easily capture the shot. Since smartphone cameras are not yet known for their fast AF speeds and focus capture times, Samsung is taking a huge leap in technology by implementing it into this beast of a phone.
The Galaxy S5 is also employs new software that uses selective focus after the image has been taken. This software should give the image a defocused look mimicking bokeh that is seen in mid to high end cameras. Finally, the smartphone camera has a new HDR mode that is available for still imagery and video. The software allows you to see the effect in live view mode before you take the picture.
For more information about the smartphone and its components, click on this link to view the full Samsung Galaxy S5 announcement. Plus, J.R. Nelson, editor of Brighthand.com, was able to get his hands on the new camera. Check out his first impressions here. I am really looking forward to taking a look at this camera–I mean phone–when it becomes available.