Every photographer, professional or non-professional, expects his/her photos to be of topmost quality. The general thinking is to go for more megapixel cameras to get better quality pictures. Well, it is just not the megapixels that give better pictures there are other factors also one needs to look for when selecting their DLSR camera or Smartphone. The efficiency of sensor technology, the lens quality, the image sensor size and of course what you want to capture with the camera are few of them.
One of the important thing that the consumers needs to look for is the sensor size. The bigger the sensor size, better are the pictures. The image sensor of the camera determines the quantity of light that needs to be used to produce an image. These sensors consists of millions of light spots, called photosites, to record the information. These light spots are capable of capturing photos with less noise and improved low light performance. Also the lens also determines how much light gets captured, the larger the lenses the more is the light. Camera manufactures across the globe are now focusing on the demand of the consumers wanting better quality images that only come from having a bigger sensor. So far DSLR and Smartphone cameras have been introduced in the market with bigger image sensors. One thing to understand though is you would need an extra resolution and ultimately bigger sensors only if you are going to crop or print images heavily and not if you are just going to share the images with your friends and family over internet only.
Bigger sensors can isolate a subject in focus better keeping the rest of the picture blurred. Smartphone normally comes up with small sensors for obvious reason of keeping them compact. The professional cameras have usually bigger sensor and hence the price is also on the higher side.
Not all camera manufacturers specify the sensor size in their specifications but as the consumer getting wiser they will certainly start doing specifying it. In the Smartphone category, Nokia smartphone 808 Pureview has 1/1.2 inch sensor. The iPhone 5 uses a 1/3.2 inch sensor, however Nokia 808 uses the largest 1/1.2 inch image sensor. In point and shoot cameras Sony RX100 has 1 inch sensor while the Canon G1X has 1.5 inch image sensor.
Of course every device can not have a bigger sensor because it increases the size of the camera or Smartphone and also increases the cost. In days to come and with the technological advancement we will see the small sensor cameras will also start bringing the same performance as like the lager sensor cameras.
