Full-res Sony Xperia Z camera samples surface from CES

Lucky fellow journalists got the chance to smuggle out an Xperia Z outside the CES grounds for a short photo shoot and they've published the results.

Sony made a real splash with their Xperia Z and ZL announcement at CES this year. Besides the 5-inch 1080p screen, the Xperia Z features a 13MP camera with an Exmor RS sensor, which is supposedly improved over last year's Exmor R lineup. There is also a built-in real-time HDR mode for shooting video, which sounds intriguing, to say the least.

According to the guys over at BestBoys.de, who got to shoot with the Xperia Z, the auto focus is incredibly responsive both in continuous and in touch mode.

From what we see, image sharpness is not ideal at 100% magnification but other than that, we definitely see improvement over last year's Xperia T. The noise levels are lower and the exposure metering seems correct.

  
Sony Xperia Z camera samples

We even got a video with the new HDR video mode. The effect is visible when shooting backlit or dark subjects. The "HDR" algorithm opens up the shadows to create a more evenly illuminated scene without blowing up the highlights.

Video quality (sharpness, especially) is really good though the continuous auto focus is on the slow side (which can be an advantage in certain situations). So we are definitely witnessing an improvement over the Xperia T. Reportedly, however, the camcorder strangely lacks the option for video stabilization, unlike the Xperia T.

Here's the camera sample and don't forget to open the video fullscreen and turn on the 1080p mode. Oh, and don't mind the Asian dude that's doing standing pushups.

Check out even more camera samples at the source link below.

Thanks for the tip, kurtdean! Source

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Lenovo K900: 5.5" 1080p screen, 13MP camera and dual-core Atom

Lenovo brought the successor to the K800 to CES - the Lenovo K900 is an Intel-powered, Android-running phablet with a 5.5" 1080p screen. The device is also one of the thinnest in its class with a 6.9mm thick stainless steel and polycarbonate unibody.

Lenovo K900

The K900 packs a Gorilla Glass 2 protected 5.5" IPS LCD screen with 400ppi pixel density, matching the ZTE Grand S. The phablet weighs 162g and Lenovo put a lot of work into making sure nothing sticks out beyond the 6.9mm thickness.

Not even the 13MP camera that uses a Sony BSI sensor and an impressively bright F/1.8 lens. The front-facing camera has an 88-degree viewing angle for better self-shots and video calling.

The Lenovo K900 runs Android and is powered by a dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 processor (Clover Trail+). There's no official info on the Android version or the CPU specs, but various sources mention 1.8GHz or 1.5GHz clock speed.

The K900 will launch in China this April and will expand to "select regional markets" shortly after. The pricing will be announced later.

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Probable next Nexus phone, LG E960 Mako camera samples leak

LG is pretty lax when it comes to keeping the LG E960, a.k.a. the Optimus G-based Nexus phone, under wraps. Images and details of the smartphone just cant stop leaking all over web. The latest info comes from Onliner (again) and shows two camera samples.

The camera is an 8MP shooter (the Optimus G has two versions, 8MP and 13MP) and according to the EXIF info has a 4.6mm focal length (but that's all the info there is, the aperture data is missing). Note that the software is not finished yet, so we can expect the image quality to improve.

 
LG E960 Mako camera samples

The LG E960 Nexus has also been confirmed to use the Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 chipset with four Krait cores and Adreno 320 graphics. What this leak didn?t confirm is the worrying rumor that the LG-made Nexus will have only 8GB of non-expandable on-board storage. Onliner is promising a review will be available tomorrow, so that will be settled soon.

In the mean time, you can hit the source link to check out a 360-degree spin on the phone.

Source (in Russian)

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Sony LT30 Mint camera samples and specs leak

Remember the Sony LT30 Mint? We got the codename way back in January thanks to a leaked roadmap, which said the smartphone was supposed to launch in September and cost ?560.
Then the LT30 device leaked via the Bluetooth certification with a bunch of juicy specs ? a 4.6-inch HD display, a 13 MP rear camera and an HD front one.
Today we get to see a few camera samples captured with the device and learn even more specs. Codenamed Sony Xperia Mint, the phone will be powered by a Snapdragon S4 chipset, featuring 1GB of RAM and will offer 16GB internal storage expandable via microSD slot and NFC connectivity. The phone is currently running on Android 4.0.4 ICS, but it may launch with 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Here are the 13MP camera samples.

Motorola XT907 with 4G LTE leaks on camera

A new Motorola device has been spotted on Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba with the model number XT907.

Although not much is known about the handset, from the image it looks like a scaled down version of the current DROID RAZR (XT912). It is said to have a 540 x 960 resolution display, same as the DROID RAZR but due to the on-screen controls it is being reported as 540 x 888.
It has the same Kevlar back but the camera module does not stick out near the top, pointing towards a lower resolution camera and/or a thicker body. The camera also says just HD video, meaning it is a 720p camera instead of the FullHD camera on the DROID RAZR.
We can also see the Verizon badge on the back, along with 4G LTE.
According to Droid Life, the handset will have the Snapdragon S4 processor and will also come in a white version.
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Sony Xperia GX camera video sample surfaces

It looks like someone else got their hands on an Xperia GX in a Japanese DoCoMo store, and decided to take a video showing off the 13MP camera.

Like the still image samples, the video is taken indoors, and does not show much in the way of the full capabilities of the sensor. Nevertheless, it is of full 1080p resolution.

The Sony Xperia GX has garnered some criticism for reportedly being a Japan-only device, despite some hints that an international version may be in the works. Here's to hoping that we'll see the slick device in our neck of the woods someday.

Thanks zymo!

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New OmniVision camera sensor shoots 16MP stills, 4K video

If you haven't heard of OmniVision, you should know make some pretty good camera sensors (the one in the iPhone 4, for example). Today they outed the OV16820, a 16MP sensor intended for use in digital cameras and the high-end smartphones

The sensor measures 1/2.3" and uses OmniVision's OmniBSI-2 technology with 1.34 micro pixel pitch. It's capable of outputting 16MP (4608 x 3456) photos at 30fps in burst mode and 4K2K (3840 x 2160, four times the resolution of 1080p) video at 60fps.

The new OmniVision sensor also supports on-chip pixel binning (2x2 and 3x3) and resampling. Pixel binning is a popular way to improve quality when the needed resolution is lower than the sensor resolution (so, it will work for 1080p and 720p, videos but not 4K2K).

All this sounds pretty awesome - burst shot mode is becoming more important (as the HTC One phones and Samsung Galaxy S III will tell you) - and 16MP cameraphones are already on the market (HTC Titan II).

As for the 4K2K video, it's a nice dream but we don't think we'll see it in a phone soon - processing four times as many pixels as FullHD (especially at 60fps) is too much burden even for the current smartphone chipsets.

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