Technologies

A Decade Later, Your Phone Still Can’t Replace a Pro Camera

Commentary: Phone cameras are getting better and better, but they still aren’t much closer to replacing dSLRs and professional mirrorless cameras.

On a chilly Saturday afternoon in San Francisco, I was under a patio heater with a group of friends when someone said we should get a group photo. What happened next was surprising. Instead of using his phone to take a commemorative photo, my friend pulled out a point-and-shoot camera. I thought to myself, «Wait. The phone killed the point-and-shoot camera years ago. Why didn’t he just use his iPhone?» Granted it was the high-end Sony RX100 VII, which is an excellent compact camera and one of the few point-and-shoots still made today.

Phones from Apple, Samsung and Google include some of the best phone cameras you can buy, like the iPhone 14 Pro, Google Pixel 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. But for professional photographers and filmmakers, that’s not always enough. The holy grail is being able to have a truly large image sensor like the one you’d find in a high-end mirrorless camera and a lens mount that could attach to your phone. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong.

Everyone from Samsung to Panasonic, Sony and Motorola has tried to make this dream a reality in some way. Now Xiaomi, the world’s third largest phone-maker (behind Samsung and Apple) is the latest to rekindle the quest for the phone camera holy grail. The company has a new prototype phone that lets you mount a Leica M lens on it.

But this is just a concept. If you’re wondering whether phones will ever make dedicated pro cameras obsolete the way they did with point-and-shoots, the answer is a resounding no. The past decade has shown us why.

Why phone cameras are limited

First, it’s important to understand how your phone’s camera works. Behind the lens is a tiny image sensor, smaller than a single Lego brick. Sometimes there are headlines that Sony, Sharp or, years ago, Panasonic put a 1-inch sensor in a phone. Sadly, that name doesn’t refer to the actual dimensions and in reality, a 1-inch image sensor is about 0.6 of an inch diagonally or, for the sake of approximation, two Lego bricks. The 1-inch sensor is the hoverboard of cameras, but it’s still one of the largest to be put into a phone.

Dedicated cameras have sensors that are closer to 12 Lego bricks (positioned side-by-side in a four-by-three rectangle) and most come with a lens mount that lets you change lenses. The «holy grail» is to put one of these larger sensors into a phone.

But bigger sensors are more expensive than the little ones used in your iPhone and there are space considerations. A lens for a phone camera sensor is relatively small. But lenses for a full-frame sensor are larger and require more space between the back of the lens and the sensor. Phones simply lack this room without becoming significantly thicker.

Every year we see Apple, Samsung and the like take small steps toward improving phone photography. But phone camera hardware has largely hit a ceiling. Instead of radical camera improvements, we get modest upgrades. This could be a sign that companies have honed in on what consumers want. But it could also be a consequence of space and size limitations of tiny sensors.

Instead smartphone-makers use computational photography to overcome a tiny sensor’s limitations — smaller dynamic range and light sensitivity. Google, Apple, Samsung all use machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to improve the photos you take with your phone.

But hardware is also important. Earlier this month Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, shared a photo on Twitter, above, of a visit to Sony in Japan. While it’s been widely assumed that Apple uses Sony’s image sensors in the iPhone, this is the first time Cook formally acknowledged it. And as CNET readers already know, Sony phones like the Xperia 1 IV have some of the best camera hardware found on any phone sold today.

The Xperia 1 IV won a CNET Innovation award for its telephoto camera, which has miniature lens elements that actually move back and forth, like a real telephoto lens. The result is that you can use the lens to zoom without cropping digitally, which degrades the image. Can you imagine an iPhone 15 Pro with this lens?

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra Leica lens prototype is so 2013

That brings us to Xiaomi, which is the latest company attempting to merge pro-level cameras with your phone. In November, Xiaomi released a video of a phone camera concept that shows a Leica lens mounted on a 12S Ultra phone. This prototype is like a concept car: No matter how cool it is, you’ll never get to drive it.

The Chinese company took the 12S Ultra and added a removable ring around its circular camera bump. The ring covers a thread around the outside edge of the camera bump onto which you can attach an adapter that lets you mount Leica M lenses. The adapter’s thickness is the same distance that a Leica M lens needs to be positioned away from the sensor in order to focus.

A few caveats: The Xiaomi 12S Ultra concept uses an exposed 1-inch sensor, which as I mentioned earlier, isn’t actually 1-inch. Next, this is purely a concept. If something like this actually went on sale, it would cost thousands of dollars. A nice dedicated camera like the Fujifilm X100 V, which has a much bigger sensor, costs $1,399 in comparison.

Xiaomi isn’t the first phone-maker to try this. In 2013, Sony took an image sensor and put it on the back of a lens that has a grip to attach to the back of a phone. The idea is to use your phone’s screen as the viewfinder for the camera system, which you can control through an app. Essentially you bypass your phone’s cameras.

Sony made several different versions of this «lens with a grip» and used sensors that were just a bit bigger than those found in phone cameras. Sony also made the QX-1 camera, which had an APS-C sized sensor that in our Lego approximation is about six bricks positioned side-by-side in a three-by-two rectangle. That’s not as large as a full-frame sensor, but vastly bigger than your phone’s image sensors.

The Sony QX-1 has a Sony E-mount, meaning you can use various E-mount lenses or use adapters for Canon or Nikon lenses. Because the QX-1 is controlled with Bluetooth, you could either attach it to your phone or put it in different places to take photos remotely.

The QX-1 came out in 2014 and cost $350. Imagine having something like this today? I would definitely buy a 2022 version if Sony made it, but sadly the QX-1 was disconitntued a few years after it went on sale. That’s around the time that Red, the company that makes cinema cameras used to film shows and movies like The Hobbit, The Witcher, Midsommar and The Boys, made a phone called the Red Hydrogen One.

Despite being a phone made by one of the best camera companies in the world, the $1,300 Red Hydrogen One’s cameras were on par with those from a $700 Android phone. The back of the phone had pogo pins designed to attach different modules (like Moto Mods), including a «cinema camera module» that housed a large image sensor and a lens mount, according to patent drawings. The idea is that you would use a Hydrogen One and the cinema mod to turn the phone into a mini-Red cinema camera.

Well, that never happened.

The Red Hydrogen One was discontinued and now shows up as a phone prop in films like F9, on the dashboard of Dominic Toretto’s car or in the hands of Leonard DiCaprio in Don’t Look Up.

2023 will show that pro cameras won’t be killed off by our phones

There aren’t any rumors that Apple is making an iPhone with a camera lens mount, nor are there murmurs of a Google mirrorless camera. But if Xiaomi made a prototype of a phone with a professional lens mount, you have to imagine that somewhere in the basement of Apple Park sits an old concept camera that runs an iOS-like interface, is powered by the iPhone’s A-series chip and able to use some of the same computational photography processing. Or at least that’s what I’d like to believe.

How amazing would photos look from a pro-level dedicated camera that uses the same processing tricks that Apple or Google implement on their phones? And how nice would it be to have a phone-like OS to share those photos and videos to Instagram or TikTok?

Turns out, Samsung tried bringing an Android phone’s interface to a camera in 2012. Noticing a theme here? Most of these holy grail phone camera concepts were tried 10 years ago. A few of these, like the Sony QX-1, were truly ahead of their time.

I don’t think Apple will ever release a standalone iOS-powered camera or make an iPhone with a Leica lens mount. The truth is that over the past decade, cameras have gotten smaller. The bulky dSLRs that signified professional cameras for years are quickly heading into the sunset. Mirrorless cameras have risen in popularity. They tend to be smaller, since they don’t need the space for a dSLR mirror box.

If there is a takeaway from all of this, it’s just a reminder of how good the cameras on our phones have gotten in that time. Even if it feels like they’ve plateaued, they’re dependable for most everyday tasks. But they won’t be replacing professional cameras anytime soon.

If you want to step up into a professional camera, find one like the Fujifilm X100 V or Sony A7C, that pack a large image sensor, a sharp lens and can fit into a coat pocket. And next time I’m at a dinner party with friends, I won’t act so shocked when someone wants to take a picture with a camera instead of a phone.

Technologies

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree: Anime Hades With a Hunky Fish-man

We go hands-on with Towa, a roguelike hack-and-slash published by Bandai Namco, that has its own cool twists on the genre.

Behind closed doors at Summer Game Fest, I sat down to play a new game published by Bandai Namco that’s tailor-made for Hades fans: Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, which has its own take on the roguelike hack-and-slash genre. And, yes, a playable hot hybrid fish-man.

Towa’s isometric combat looks a lot like Hades at first glance, and shares some of the same basic structure. Players start at a hub area and start runs going through a series of gated battlefields filled with enemies. After they’re defeated, you’re granted a boon — an upgrade to your skills, weapons, currency reward and so on. Hades players will be able to pick this up with ease when Towa launches on Sept. 18.

Towa, developed by studio Brownies, Inc., has its own anime style and diverse group of fighters that sets it apart from Hades. In it, the titular Towa, a priestess of the tranquil Shinju village, charges eight guardians with defeating the evil Magatsu and his minions. With different combat styles, players pick one of these heroes to control and another for spell-casting backup (which a second player can pick up and control, too) to send into battle.

Setting aside, it’s clear that Towa takes a lot of inspiration from Hades in its gameplay, which Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree director Shuhei Yamashita acknowledged.

«Of course, we have respect for Hades, and I had early access to that, and when I played it, the maneuverability was interesting, so that’s something that we referenced,» Yamashita said. «And the roguelike system, you have a unique maneuverability and you can really incorporate a unique element to it, so that’s something that we have put into our game.»

Towa is visually striking, with an anime look and vibrant colors — and even though players wield two swords like samurai, the game stands apart from the recent vogue of period titles like Assassins’ Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima with its setting in a peaceful village.

«Rather than going with samurai and historical days with a more realistic style, Brownies created this game that we wanted to be more fantastical — not necessarily Japanese, but the kind of Eastern fantasy-type artwork that would be more attractive,» said Yamashita.

Apart from the game’s aesthetics, Towa stands out for its different take on combat. The players’ two swords — a main-hand honzashi and off-hand wakizashi — wear down quickly with every slash, kind of like the durability meter in Monster Hunter World’s weapon system. You’ll need to swap between the two swords to sharpen them (a move that comes with a short dash), which adds a rhythm to combat as you switch back and forth.

But unlockable boons and upgrades will add variety to your play style. Some are straight damage, others add effects to your swords like knockback or trigger things like shockwaves when using a spell. The devs sitting alongside my demo hinted that you may even find boons that incentivize unorthodox strategies, like keeping your blades dull to unleash different attacks. There’s a depth to the combat that I didn’t scratch the surface of during my brief time with the game.

I also didn’t get a deep look at how the eight fighters differ — aside from the fish-man Nishiki, there’s a rotund Shiba Inu and six other anime-looking heroes to choose from. I chose the hunky fish-man as my main while selecting Origami, the fighter covered in folded paper armor, as my spellcaster and dove into a run.

With a mix of melee and ranged enemies, the latter of which show the path for their attacks, Towa has some overlap with Hades’ design. But the weapon switching mechanic is a notable difference, as are the spells — my sidekick Origami had one with an area of attack mechanic that I could splash groups of enemies with.

In practice, remembering to switch between weapons when they dulled took time to learn, and I kept forgetting to use my spells. It also took me a while to sort out that my health bar at the bottom of the screen was split between my main fighter and backup spellcaster. But the game can get overwhelming with all the area attacks and flashy skill effects, so it’s easy to lose your hero in the fireworks.

After several rooms of enemies, I squared off against the mid-run boss and soundly defeated it, then moved into a merchant room where I could spend currency on upgrades — all familiar territory for Hades fans. But just before advancing on the main boss, I entered a calm room overlooking a vista with a campfire. Here is where your heroes will take a breath and chat to share their backstories and more details about the world, fleshing out the characters and the game’s lore.

«Towa is a very story-focused game, so you could find as much story as you would normally find with RPG games,» Yamashita said, noting that the characters you bring on runs with you deepen their relationships as you converse at these campfires.

Brimming with confidence — a little too much, sadly — I waltzed into the boss room and gave it everything I had, including Nishiki’s ultimate ability for massive AOE damage. These charge up with attacks, and certain upgrades can speed up their recharge rate. Despite some nimble dashing and damage, and whittling down the boss to a quarter of its health, I succumbed. (Later in the weekend, I was told that only seven players at Summer Game Fest had taken down the boss at the time.)

Players won’t have long to wait for their own chance to try out a unique spin on roguelike combat. Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree comes out Sept. 18 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch for $30.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, June 13

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 13.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

So, there’s kind of a dad joke in today’s NYT Mini Crossword. 4-Across is «dessert wine,» and 6-Across is «desert whine.» You can almost hear the rimshot from here. Thankfully, today’s puzzle is no joke, it’s pretty simple. But you could still get stumped. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: House and Doogie Howser, for short
Answer: MDS

4A clue: Dessert wine
Answer: PORT

5A clue: Mugful after a sledding excursion
Answer: COCOA

6A clue: Desert whine?
Answer: IMHOT

7A clue: «Like, yesterday!»
Answer: ASAP

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Chocolate-and-coffee drink
Answer: MOCHA

2D clue: Sag
Answer: DROOP

3D clue: Three-point percentage, e.g.
Answer: STAT

4D clue: Poofy toy dogs, familiarly
Answer: POMS

5D clue: Org. that employs Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy novels
Answer: CIA

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Amazon Prime Video Now Showing Nearly 6 Minutes of Ads Per Hour, Double What It Was

Streaming service quietly has upped the hourly ad amount since the initial launch of Prime Video ads.

Amazon is now showing four to six minutes of advertisements per hour on its Prime Video streaming service. That’s about double the ad load from when the company introduced ads in January 2024, according to a report from ADWEEK.

According to the report, which is based on information from six ad buyers and documents, Amazon notified investors of the increase in ads but has not made a public announcement of the change.

Despite initial grumbling from consumers, Amazon introduced ads to Prime Video in January 2024, with ad loads of two to three and a half minutes per hour.

«We remain focused on prioritizing ad innovation over volume,» an Amazon Ads spokesperson said. «While demand continues to grow, our commitment is to improving ad experiences rather than simply increasing the number of ads shown. Since the beginning of this year alone, we’ve announced multiple capabilities, including Brand+, Complete TV and new ad formats — all designed to deliver industry-leading relevancy and enhanced customer experiences. We will continue to invest in this important work, creating meaningful innovations that benefit both customers and advertisers alike.»

The higher volume of ads serves at least a couple of purposes. It brings Prime Video more closely in alignment with the larger amount of ads shown on other streamers such as Hulu, Tubi and Paramount Plus, and it also allows Amazon to sell many more ads in relation to its inventory.

It’s unknown whether Prime Video will further increase its ad load, but nonetheless ads on streaming channels will be more and more a major space for revenue growth for streaming services. A recent report from subscription analyst firm Antenna noted that «3 in 4 individuals who face an Ad Choice choose ads» and that nearly half of subscription video on demand customers are what Antenna calls «Ad Managers» — users who select both ad-free and ad-supported tiers.