Kodak To Put 5.0 Megapixels In Your Phone

Boston (dbTechno) -As if having a 2-3 megapixel camera in your phone wasn’t good enough, Kodak believes they can now develop up to a 5-megalpixel camera to put into your next phone. Eastman Kodak Company is so confident that their new 1.4 micron sensor will be able to be put into some of the cheapest phones, that they are showing them off to mobile phone companies at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week.

The KAC-05020 image sensor combines CMOS technology with Kodak’s own Color Filter Pattern (sic) technology to deliver brilliant looking pics, even in very low light. Kodak says this makes the 1.4 micron KAC-05020 better even than 1.75 micron pixel CMOS image sensors.”Camera phones and other small-pixel consumer imaging devices often suffer from poor performance, especially under low light conditions.

“To manufacture sensors that utilize these very small pixels - only two to three times the wavelength of visible light - we needed to challenge everything we knew about pixel and sensor design,” said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak’s Image Sensor Solutions business. “By completely rethinking the design of the CMOS pixel and leveraging our work with high sensitivity color filter patterns and algorithms, Kodak was able to develop this remarkable new sensor that will enable a level of imaging performance previously unavailable from CMOS devices.”

Kodak says it has completely re-engineered the technology so that it can actually compete with the CCD image sensors in stand alone cameras.

The KAC-05020 supports digital equivalent film speeds of up to ISO 3200, full 720p high def video at 30 frames per second (FPS). It can also offer digital image stabilization, rapid auto-focus, red-eye reduction and facial recognition - being able to compete directly with the consumer digital cameras of today.I thought my 2.0 megapixel iPhone took great pictures.

I could never imagine my phone taking real 5.0 megapixel pictures and having the capabilities of my $300 compact camera. For people who are avid picture takers, the Kodak image sensor will not replace any compact camera quality or options/controls.

But, for those unexpected picture moments that you need to pull out your cell phone for, this will be sure to please anyone.However, Kodak says not to really expect anything till 2009, giving competition plenty of time to start working hard on new breakthrough technology.