It seems that only now are we beginning to really see decent image quality combine with truly small form factor in digital cameras. This new sensor from OmniVision solves one of the problems facing the tiny cameras in cell phones, webcams, and embedded electronics: low light sensitivity. Because of the nature of the sensors and their small size, every photon counts and more often than not, on current sensors, you’re getting a lot of noise because of outrageous ISO levels for normally lit shots. OmniVision has reorganized the micrometer-thick layers so that the actual light-sensing part is closer to the light source, resulting in vastly increased light sensitivity.
Good for them, but the other problem with tiny sensors remains: you can’t get a clear image out of them. Being so small, the image must be focused on an extremely small plane, which to do without distortion or blurriness is extremely difficult at any reasonable cost. Basically, you’re not going to have the glass to create a decent image to capture, so no matter how sensitive the sensor is, the image quality is going to suck. [via Electronista]