Omnivision’s CameraChip for phones shoots 12.7MP snaps at 24fps

OmniVision has taken the wraps off a new 12.7MP image sensor designed for smartphones and high-end tablets.

The OV12830 is no bigger than a current-gen 8MP camera sensor, at 8.5×8.5mm, and will snap 12.7MP images at 24fps in burst mode. It’ll also shoot 10MP images at 30fps, and can record 1080p video at 60fps.

OmniVision provided the sensor for Apple’s new iPad and the iPhone 4, though it lost out to a Sony image sensor in the iPhone 4S. The OV12830 most likely won’t find its way into the iPhone 5 either – the sensor only goes into production in late 2012, so will likely be included in 2013’s line-up of phones.

Okay, it’s not quite as impressive as OmniVision’s 4K, 16MP sensor unveiled earlier in the week – but it looks like the era of sub-10MP smartphone cameras is coming to an end.

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Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home