Nowadays, mobile phones are becoming more and more powerful in photography, with the need for slow motion, portraits, sports video, background bokeh, ultra-wide angle, high zoom, etc, not a problem. So an old and perennial topic arises, when exactly will it catch up or even surpass the DSLR?
In an exchange with the media the other day, Qualcomm Vice President Judd Heape’s view was that AI (artificial intelligence) technology has greatly advanced mobile photography, and that this combination has entered stage three, with three to five years to go before the ultimate, holy grail level of stage four.
External interpretations suggest that the fourth stage will be the moment when mobile photography will overtake DSLRs across the board.
Here’s how the four stages are divided, starting around 2018, AI technology took off in mobile phone photography, but that was only used to identify what was in the picture, such as people, animals, landscapes, etc.; in the second stage, AI started to be used to optimize the 3A, which is autofocus, auto white balance and auto exposure. In the current third stage, AI can already partially understand the elements of the scene and try to fit the needs of the shooter.
The so-called fourth stage is also where AI is involved in the processing of the entire picture.
In fact, earlier this year, Sony executives also believed that within a few years, mobile phone images will surpass DSLRs.
It is worth mentioning that the Qualcomm VP also mentioned that the Snapdragon imaging unit on the phone processes 10 times faster compared to the bulky and outdated kind of cameras from Canon and Nikon, which will allow for more wonderful things to happen, although he also admitted that having a CMOS beyond 1 inch on the phone is not realistic in the short term, I’m afraid.
