A Sensor That Could Outperform the Best

[erek]

20 stops seems like so much

“Apple Just Patented an Image Sensor With 20 Stops of Dynamic Range

Dynamic range and noise are the two main limiting factors in digital imaging. A mobile or compact sensor offering 20 stops of dynamic range and advanced on-chip noise suppression is not just an improvement — it’s disruptive.

This could impact:

• Mobile cinematography
• HDR streaming content
• AR/VR visual fidelity
• Even professional filmmaking kits where compactness and quality must coexist

And since this is Apple, it’s not hard to imagine the company integrating this sensor deeply with Neural Engine processing, making it even more capable under extreme conditions.“

Source: https://ymcinema.com/2025/06/25/apple-just-patented-an-image-sensor-with-20-stops-of-dynamic-range/

 

[erek]

my old Canon 5D Mark III only has a dynamic range of ~11.7 stops

 

[cdabc123]

Phone camera are pretty wild. In combination with multiple cutting edge sensors they used dedicated parts of the asic to combine, filter, sharpen, refine, and post process the images. The additional silicon dedicated to cameras has proven to be a very cool feature and after many years had largely surpassed traditional cameras in many ways. Those relied on less compute based imaging and a higher quality lense, optics, and single sensor.