Sharp Launches World's Smallest Image-Stabilized Cellphone Camera

Sharp's small, stable smartphone sensor

12 Megapixels in a smartphone camera? That sounds like a bad idea. But an image-stabilized sensor in a smartphone camera? That sounds ideal.

Those previous sentences describe Sharp's new super-thin 1x3.2-inch CMOS sensor which, at 0.31-inches on the diagonal, is the same size as that found in the iPhone 4. The stabilization works by shifting the lens, and will allow sharp shots in much lower light than a regular camera unit.

The 5.47 mm thick unit (the world's smallest for a stabilized module says Sharp) uses a backlit (circuitry behind the photo-sites) design, shoots 1080p video, outputs RAW files and has a maximum aperture of ƒ2.5. In short, it sounds like exactly the kind of camera you want in a cellphone.

All except the 12.1MP, that is. Squeezing that many pixels onto such a tiny chip can cause noise, but more importantly in a cellphone, you have to save big 12MP images onto a device with limited storage.

Still, that probably won't stop any manufacturers one-upping each other with these big numbers. The RJ63YC100, as it is named, can be had in sample form right now for ¥12,000, or around $155.

Sharp to Introduce Industry's Thinnest CMOS Camera Module with Optical Image Stabilization for Smartphones [Sharp via FarEast Gizmos and Andrew Liszewski]