Author: Zhou Yuan Wall Street News.
The OV50H is becoming the collective choice of domestic smartphone manufacturers: the image sensor (CIS) used in the rear main camera optical module of the annual flagship smartphone will gradually replace the previous Sony and Samsung products.
This is a major step forward made by OmniVision Technologies in the last 10 years, and this progress is completely dominated by China's science and technology innovation forces.
Following Xiaomi, vivo, Honor and realme in 2023, in 2024, this sensor will usher in another super player: Huawei: Wall Street has exclusively learned from multiple channels in the **chain that Huawei's P-series flagship P70 standard version this year will be equipped with this sensor.
The OV50H is one of the 50 series developed by OmniVision Technology. The OV50 series, including the already released OV50E (Xiaomi Light and Shadow Hunter 800), OV50D, and OV50H (Xiaomi Light and Shadow Hunter 900), and the yet-to-be-released OV50K and OV50N, all belong to the flagship class.
At present, most smartphone users know that Sony and Samsung sensors mean excellent performance due to years of education in domestic mobile phones. Now, how can the OV50H take the other on such a large scale? Where is OmniVision Technology sacred?
OV50H, more well-known is the marketing term of this customized version of this sensor equipped with the Xiaomi 14 series: Light and Shadow Hunter 900.
This sensor is the most popular spicy chicken in the fourth quarter of 2023 for the flagship main camera sensor of Chinese smartphone manufacturers, in addition to the Xiaomi 14 series (the top flagship with the highest sales in Xiaomi's history), there is also the iQOO12 series belonging to vivo; In 2024, the Honor Magic6 series, Meizu 21 Pro and Huawei P70 standard version will be added.
Without exception, these models use the OV50H as the rear main camera sensor.
OV50H technical basic parameters: CMOS photosensitive area 1 128 inches, 50 million pixels, native sub-pixel size 12 microns, support pixel 4-in-1, H V QPD focus, DCG HDR and other technologies.
Aside from the conventional technical parameters, OV50H was mentioned by Xiaomi to the height of comparison with Sony IMX989, does this really have the corresponding technical strength, or is there something else?
Xiaomi 14 poster said, "Light and Shadow Hunter 900 native dynamic range is 8 times higher than Sony IMX989 (dynamic range single frame 13.5 gears)".
It should be said that this is more of a propaganda nature.
In general, the native dynamic range of a smartphone sensor is about 60dB, which is equivalent to about 10EV.
Sony's IMX989, which is the top sensor of current smartphones, has a dynamic range of only about 1033ev。The Hunter 900 has a dynamic range of up to 135ev, how is this done? The result?
According to the poster technical description of the Light and Shadow Hunter 900, due to the use of "dual native ISO fusion max" technology, it can surpass the IMX989 due to the use of native ultra-high dynamics.
So, what is this "dual-native ISO fusion max"?
In fact, this technology is similar to Samsung's "Smart-ISO Pro" technology, that is, it does the fusion of dual native ISO fusion and double conversion gain. The previous OV48C was also used. In the field of mobile phones, this technology was first launched by Samsung in May 2019 (model GW1).
If you exclude the 24dB (i.e., 4EV) dynamic range value brought about by the dual native ISO fusion factor, then the native dynamic range of the Light Hunter 900 is 95EV, which is in line with the industry's technical norms, is still inferior to the IMX989.
Strictly speaking, the dynamic range after the fusion of dual native ISO fusion and double conversion gain cannot be called "native". However, the dual-native ISO Fusion MAX technology can synthesize 14bit RGB RAW, so from the perspective of the RAW domain, Xiaomi calls it "native dynamic range", although it is a little exaggerated, but it cannot be completely wrong.
When domestic smartphone manufacturers mention the "RAW domain", they will basically add an adverb: lossless, such as the RAW domain lossless (image) algorithm. This is because the raw domain is the raw domain (raw, undepleted), that is, the graph that has just been output from the sensor, the original raw data without any processing.
From a parametric point of view, the native dynamic range of the OV50H is indeed higher than that of the IMX989. However, in the actual shooting scene, to achieve better results than the IMX989, the OV50H has extremely high requirements for forgiving scenes, and not all scenes can achieve consistent performance.
What is tolerance?
In a nutshell, latitude is the ability of the image sensor of a smartphone imaging system (or conventional camera) to correctly record the brightness range. For example, if the tolerance is low, then taking photos in a strong light environment, even if ** is correct, it will not be able to shoot the scene near the strong light source (bright white); Conversely, low-light environments do not show details in low-light areas (dead black).
Therefore, a smartphone with an OV50H sensor is difficult to show the details of the scene in a strong and low-light environment when actually taking pictures. Only in normal light environment, OV50H will perform well.
In any case, the OV50H can perform in a normal light environment as well as Sony's top flagship sensor IMX989 (or even surpass), which is already a huge progress in domestic technology.
In the first half of 2024, the later version of the OV50H, the OV50K (domestic one-inch outsole), is likely to achieve mass production, and the iterative version of the OV50K, the OV50N, is also on the way.
The OV50 series sensors are all products of OmniVision Technology. It should be said that Xiaomi is the promoter, leader and popularizer of Omnivision Technology's sensor return to the high-end market.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra was released in 2020, and the OV48C was first released as a wide-angle sensor. This is also the first time in the history of OmniVision Technology's CMOS that it has been used in a top-of-the-line flagship model, but it is still not used for the main camera. In 2023, it will be Xiaomi again, and the 14 series of main camera sensors will be released for the first time.
Compared to today's OV50H, the OV48C was relatively at a higher level of technology at that time (horizontal comparison): 1 132-inch outsole, 48 million pixels, and support for dual native ISO (CMOS architecture double conversion gain, isn't it familiar?) ) technique and staggered HDR (Staggered HDR) imaging.
Sony's first CMOS with a staggered HDR structure, the well-known IMX766, was only released at the end of December 2020. The Ov48C's dual-native ISO technology was about a year behind Samsung, but ahead of Sony's equivalent flagship sensor at the time.
In 2020, the OV48C was the first batch of CMOS solutions for the main camera with "super large bottom + large single pixel". Compared to the Samsung GN1 released at the same time, the OV48C has a slightly higher camera specification, and the focus structure and static resolution are slightly inferior. But on the whole, it can be said that the OV48C is second only to the Samsung GN1 in 2020, but better than the Sony IMX766.
What is the origin of such a powerful product research and development company, Haowei Technology?
Many people say that OmniVision is a Taiwanese company registered in the United States in 1995. OmniVision has 4 founders, among which Raymond Wu, who is in charge of marketing, is from Taiwan Province, China, and Raymond Wu also obtained the start-up capital from Taiwan, China.
Among these four people, there is a Beijinger named "Chen Datong". Although Chen Datong served as the COO of OmniVision Technology in the initial stage, he was responsible for analog circuit design, which is the core and competitiveness of CIS (image sensor) technology.
Therefore, it is difficult to define whether OmniVision Technology in 1995 was a Taiwanese company or not.
Chen Datong stayed at OmniVision until 2000, during which time OmniVision launched the world's first single-chip color CMOS image sensor (1997), and by the time it was listed on the NASDAQ in July 2000, OmniVision's PC camera sensor accounted for more than 50% of the global market.
In 2000, OmniVision began to move into the field of mobile phones and cameras. In the third year (2003) of entering the field of mobile phone photography, OmniVision Technology accounted for more than 30% of the global shipment market share, winning the first place in the world.
The highlight of OmniVision Technology occurred in 2009, when OmniVision became the CIS supplier of Apple's iPhone3GS. The following year, the company's mobile phone camera CIS reached 50% of the global market share, which was an unprecedented peak moment for OmniVision Technology.
In 2012, OmniVision Technology was surpassed by Sony, the younger brother at that time and now the big brother. Sony became the first supplier of the iPhone4S main camera sensor, a phenomenal product that exploded in 2011; Two years later, in 2014, Haowei Technology was removed from the ** chain by Apple and fell behind Samsung, ranking third.
After that, Haowei Technology could only be the most low-end sensor. Therefore, in 2016, OmniVision Technology was delisted from NASDAQ. After a series of complex operations, the process was tortuous, but in 2019, Weir shares finally won the CIS design company, which was once the world's No. 1.
OV50H is the first work of OmniVision Technology to return to the battlefield of smartphone flagship main camera, which is nearly 10 years after it was kicked out of Apple's ** chain in 2014 and relegated to the low-end market. This time it returned to the high-end track, but it was completely dominated by China's scientific and technological innovation forces.
The technical performance of the OV50H has been able to surpass the performance of the Sony IMX989 in some scenarios; OV50K, which has higher technical performance than OV50H, and OV50N, which is better than OV50K in the future, once listed, will it be difficult for Haowei Technology to regain its former glory?
The stab of China's scientific and technological innovation force is amazing and effective.