Today I'm going to talk about image stabilization, what are OIS and EIS? How these works and What are the advantages of having it? So read the blog till the end.
What is Image Stabilization in smartphones?
If we go with the Wikipedia definition, the image stabilization is the family of techniques which reduces the blurring associated with the motion of the camera or other imaging device during exposure.
Got It ??? NAH !!!
Let me explain. Suppose you have to build a very basic camera from scratch. I know, I know you can't, that's why I said SUPPOSE😜. Now when you have built it, you wanted to capture some photos from it, right? After clicking some photos you'll definitely see the captured images are not good. These came out to be blurry. So, how does this happen? This happens because of the slightest movement of the camera.
The Camera captures the images when it is exposed to light. So, with the slightest movement of your camera, its exposure to light varies and the consequence will result in smear images.
Without stabilization, your snaps and selfies can come out a blurred mess and videos looks like they have been shot for an 80s B-movies. This is something that today's generation doesn't want it to happen 😁.
That's why image stabilization is increasingly one of the fundamental building blocks of a great smartphone camera.
Now let's understand what is OIS?
OIS stands for Optical Image Stabilization, its a hardware solution that uses a micro-electromechanical system gyroscope to detect movement and adjust camera system. For example if you are holding a smartphone and your hand move slightly to the left, OIS will pick up on this and shifts the camera slightly to right. This is to counteract the movement.
Here is the example of tiny OIS element of a phone camera module. See how the top portion of the lens assemble can move independently of the image sensor.
Being a hardware solution it doesn't require any cropping of image, meaning the phone uses a full sensor readout to capture the photos. Constructing good OIS hardware isn't cheap. This will add more bills to the material cost and ultimately means you will pay more for your OIS equipped smartphone.
OIS can be very useful when taking a video or still in low light. It particularly adepts in low light where the camera shutter can be open for longer duration. Without OIS, the results can be blurry.
OIS makes far more natural videos, as you are not applying any effects to the video.
Now let's understand what is EIS?
EIS stands for Electronic Image stabilization, this is an attempt to achieve the do's of OIS but with the help of software modification. This works by utilizing your smartphone's accelerometer to detect small movement. Now one question would have probably popped up on your mind is How does this EIS actually work?
So when you are using EIS, your camera zooms in and then it uses the extra room it now has around the edges to try and match every frame of the video with the frame before it. So EIS creates the illusion that the camera is staying still even if its actually moving. Its kind of cheat slightly.
With EIS enabled you no longer see the full sensor in the output. The edges of the sensor are moved like a buffer zone.
Nowadays smartphones are coming with HIS means Hybrid Image Stabilization. It is a combination of OIS and EIS. So you will get the best of both worlds.
But if you had a choice to pick between OIS and EIS, pick a phone which offers hardware-based solution i.e you should pick OIS equipped phones. As it will make your videos to look less artificial and far more effective for still images.
Thank you for Reading,
Swetabh
No comments:
Post a Comment