With each new generation of smartphones, the cameras get better. Differences to DSLR cameras still exist, but that won’t be the case for long – at least according to the vice president of Qualcomm’s camera department. In a few years, DSLR cameras are set to become obsolete.
Qualcomm: Mobile phone cameras soon ahead of DSLRs
The cameras built into smartphones have had one in recent years great leap in terms of photo and video quality did. For many users, cell phone photos have long been sufficient in everyday life, and hobby photographers no longer need compact digital cameras. In comparison with more complex SLR cameras, however, the small sensors in smartphones cannot quite keep up. But that will change, says a senior Qualcomm employee.
If Judd Heape, Qualcomm’s vice president for the areas of camera, computer vision and video at the important processor manufacturer, then Smartphones will not only catch up with DSLR cameras in a few years, they will also overtake them. In his opinion, image sensors, processors and artificial intelligence for smartphones are developing much faster than in other industries. According to Heape, DSLRs will be overtaken in about three to five years.
According to Heape, the computing power offered is that of existing Snapdragon chipsets for smartphones far more impressive than that of the largest and most powerful special cameras from manufacturers like Canon and Nikon. Cell phones could already “intelligently recognize scenes”, adjust various aspects of an image and thus “produce brilliant photos” (source: Android Authority).
How did smartphone cameras actually get so good? The answer in the video:
Better than DSLRs: It’s all about the AI
Heape describes four levels of artificial intelligence, with current cell phones said to have already climbed the third level. If the fourth level is reached in the next few years, then smartphones could, for example, perfectly recognize the difference between skin, hair, fabric and other things. At the latest then they could SLR cameras dethroned will.