The Evolution of The Mobile Camera
Light years ahead, but we must never forget our roots.
Whilst Samsung cannot claim to have inspired the first duck face (pout), or the wagging tongue we see so often on social media today, it can lay claim to having spurred the mania when it introduced its first camera phone as far back as the year 2000. Back then even the names of the phones were unimaginative but being able to capture pictures with a mobile phone, using an image sensor of 0.35MP, is pretty cool even with a name like SCH-V200.
Two years later Samsung innovated the flip phone with its SCH-X590, which boasted an image sensor of 0.11MP, by pioneering a rotating camera, allowing users to capture pictures from the front and rear of the phone - sound familiar? Yes, this was the phone that birthed selfies on a grand scale [#Iconic].
Leading the pack, Samsung decided to up the ante on the flip phone and introduced a phone with a swing-style screen in 2003, allowing users to capture images from new angles. The SCH-V420 came with an image sensor of 0.3MP, granting it bigger pixels to accompany those creative photographs.
Leaping from one milestone to greatness, in 2005 Samsung gave the world a mobile camera phone for all aspiring pocket photographers. The SCH-V770 had a first of its kind 7MP camera, that supported manual functions and wide-angle & tele-conversion lenses. It also featured 3x optical zoom, 5x digital zoom and auto focus. Ground ‘shuttering’ stuff.
The year 2010 gave us the best soccer world cup to date and Samsung’s first smartphone. Even the names started getting cooler. The Galaxy S had a 5MP camera with a wide range of modes like panorama, stop motion and cartoon shot. The touch screen changed how people interacted with their phones and viewed their pictures.
Good isn’t good enough if it can be better and in 2014 Samsung gave us better in the form of the Galaxy S5. Coupling the fastest auto-focus (0.3seconds) and Real-Time High Dynamic Range (HDR), the Galaxy S5’s 16 MP CMOS camera made pictures more vivid, brighter and instantly ready to be shared.
The more records you smash, the more driven to out-do yourself you become. In 2017 Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 8, its first smartphone with dual 12MP rear cameras with optical image stabilisation on both the telephoto and wide-angle lenses. The Live Focus feature allowed users to add a bokeh effect for more professional-looking portraits.
Craige Fleischer, Vice President of Integrated Mobility for Samsung South Africa, says,
“Capturing images to remember special occasions has been part of the human story since the beginning of time – from rock paintings to the latest art portraiture. Samsung’s innovative development grew from the SCH-V200’s camera to what we have today. Even though this is now feels light years away, Samsung continues leading the way when it comes to superlative photographic ability. The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphone cameras are simply the best on the market today.”
Having ticked all the boxes and surpassed its own imaginings, Samsung decided to reimagine the camera. From these alchemic efforts came the Galaxy S9’s camera. It is called a camera because the English language has not evolved enough to come up with the correct name. The-super-speed-DualPixel-12MP-with-960 frames per second-sensitive even to low light-reads-like-a-human-eye-camera allows users to capture the world as they see it in both bright and dark lights. It also enables you to express yourself using an emoji that looks just like you through its Augmented Reality Emoji feature. Users are able to create captivating Super Slow-mo videos to share with their friends and also make GIFs with three styles of looping: reverse, forward, or swing.
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