Samsung has announced its new 12-megapixel CMOS imager based on a back side illuminated (BSI) pixel architecture. The new chip is designed to address an 8.5mm x 8.5mm auto focus camera module with a height dimension of 6.0mm for slim mobile phones. The tiny 1/3.2” sensor supports 12-megapixel full-resolution images at 30fps, and 1080p Full HD video at 60fps, as well as 720p at 90fps and VGA movies at 120fps for slow-motion playback. Samples of the 12Mp imager are available to smartphone manufacturers now with mass production scheduled in the third quarter of this year.

Nokia has produced two different, special Nokia N8 prototypes to show the world what’s possible with these camera phones using a bit of creativity. The prototypes have been produced within the framework of the Nokia Push project, which began in September 2009 when the company called on the hacker and modder community, asking what they could dream to do with the Nokia N900 (the N8 was not available back then). The PushKAPing - KAP stands for Kite Aerial Photography - prototype allows photographers and filmmakers to capture photos and videos with a Nokia N8 suspended from a kite rig by letting them use another N8 on the ground to control exactly what is being shot. The Push Skating prototype takes the world of skate games away from the games console and back to the streets by allowing skaters’ boards to communicate with their N8 to score every single little move they make. Nokia now have four of each prototype to give away to anybody who can inspire them with a creative treatment of how they would show the world what is possible with them.

Ever wanted to make phone calls from your Panasonic Lumix camera? You’ll soon be able to, as Panasonic Japan are running an online teaser advert for a new Lumix branded smartphone, which will make its official bow at the CEATEC Japan show next week. The as yet un-named Panasonic Lumix Phone will sport a 13.2 megapixel sensor, 3.3 inch LCD screen, weight 146g and measure 116x52x17.7mm, feature the new Mobile VenusEngine processing engine and use micro SDHC cards. No word yet from outside Japan on global availability or otherwise.

Like the Altek T8680 we wrote about a few months ago, the new Altek Leo is an Android-powered camera phone with a 3x optical zoom lens. The main difference is the sensor, which is a 14-megapixel CCD as opposed to the 12-megapixel imager found in the T8680; and the addition of 720p HD movie capture. The Altek Leo features a separate camera power button that allows its users to quickly switch it to camera mode without having to scroll through a mobile phone menu trying to activate the camera function. A shutter release button, zoom rockers, xenon flash, GPS receiver, blink and smile detection technologies and a suite of photo editing functions are also on board. At the moment, the innovative handset - which also includes a 3.2”, WVGA-resolution, multi-touch capable LCD screen - appears to be targeted at the Chinese and Taiwanese markets only, although some sources suggest that it may become available in Europe early next year.

A UK-wide survey, whose findings have been unveiled today, asserts that the rise of camera phones poses no real threat to traditional photography. The survey, conducted by YouGov on behalf of Polylooks, Deutsche Telekom’s online photo agency, found that only about a fifth of Britons believe their camera phone is sufficient for their photographic needs. Nearly one in three (28%) respondents owned an SLR camera, with ownership higher among more senior age groups. Polylooks’ survey also found that men (17%) were almost twice as willing as women (9%) to spend more than £400 on a camera. Nearly a tenth of all respondents entertained the thought of going pro at some point, and exactly 10% considered submitting their images to microstock sites. “The British passion for photography remains as strong as ever,” said Norbert Weber, head of Polylooks. “While many of us now have a decent camera as part of our mobile phone, our study shows that not only do most British consumers prefer to use a high-quality camera for personal photography, but that a comparatively large amount would like the option to make money from their images.”

Apple has officially launched the iPhone 4, which features a back-illuminated 5-megapixel CMOS sensor, a LED flash and 720p HD video recording. The extra slim smartphone actually has two cameras - the second one being a front side unit that allows one to take self-portraits simply, albeit in VGA resolution only. The main, rear-facing camera is capable of shooting 5 megapixel stills and HD movies at 30 frames per second, and features tap focus - in other words, you can tell the camera what to focus on by simply tapping the subject on the iPhone’s 3.5”, 326ppi Retina Display. Two things that are basically standard features on today’s compact cameras but are missing from the Apple iPhone 4 are optical zoom and image stabilisation. The iPhone 4 makes do with a fixed lens, offering only 5x digital zoom (which is still an improvement over the iPhone 3Gs). Geotagging, on the other hand, is on board for both photos and videos. Available from 24 June, the iPhone 4 comes in two versions (16GB and 32GB), priced at $199 and $299, respectively.

The Nokia N8 is a new 12-megapixel camera phone that can also record HD-quality movie clips. With a Carl Zeiss lens, xenon flash and a sensor that allegedly rivals those found in compact digital cameras, the Nokia N8 comes with 16GB of built in storage space and a MicroSD memory card slot. Users can also share location and photos via Facebook and Twitter, using a single app directly on the home screen. Available from the third quarter of 2010 at an estimated retail price of €370, the Nokia N8 comes with free global Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation, guiding people to places and points of interest in more than 70 countries worldwide.

OmniVision has announced a new 1/4-inch, 5-megapixel RAW CMOS image sensor based on its 1.4-micron OmniBSI backside illumination (BSI) technology. OmniVision’s 1.4-micron OmniBSI pixel allegedly delivers best-in-class low light sensitivity (680-mV/lux-sec) and a small footprint, making it ideal for the ultra-compact camera modules used in mobile phones and notebooks. The sensor provides 10-bit images in RAW RGB format with complete user control over formatting and output data transfer. It is also capable of recording 720p HD video at 60 frames per second (fps) and 1080p HD video at 30 fps. The 720p/60 HD video is captured in full field of view with 2 x 2 binning, which doubles the sensitivity and improves the signal-to-noise ratio.

Photobucket has announced that its newest application for Android provides the first-ever full imaging suite for camera phones, complete with automatic upload, content management, and image search capabilities. “By adding the ability to upload all camera phone photos automatically, the time consuming and confusing process of getting pictures off your phone has been rendered a thing of the past,” said Tom Munro, President of Photobucket. “Coupling the simplicity of automatic upload with the full functionality of the Photobucket Mobile application is a game changer when it comes to managing personal photos. Best of all, the service is available to anyone with an Android phone, absolutely free of charge.” This automatic backup solution will make it easier for users to share their memories with the more than 2 million websites that host Photobucket images, including Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

Varioptic, a manufacturer of liquid lenses, has announced that it has developed its first liquid lens to bring optical image stabilisation functionality to camera phones. With no moving parts, the new liquid lens, codenamed A316S, is very robust and uses very limited power. The A316S liquid lens actuator features both OIS and silent/smooth AF. The new-generation liquid lens has a multi- electrodes design, allowing to tilt the light in all directions of space and, at the same time, to refocus the light. The ability to tilt the light enables camera module manufacturers to use Varioptic’s liquid lens to activate optical image stabilisation by measuring the handshake and compensating in real time.

Website: Varioptic’s Technology Overview

Digital photography school Photography Made Simple launches the UK’s first ever mobile phone photography course this month. The courses will take place around the UK, starting with the first mobile phone photography class in London on 16th January. The mobile phone photography class schedule includes practice sessions on composition, making the most of natural light, using the flash, timing and focus. Phil Hibberd, co-founder of Photography Made Simple said, “Kids have a real interest in photography but we find they can’t afford an expensive camera so we thought it would be a good idea to run a photography course focused solely on mobile phone photography as it’s still possible to take good creative photographs even with a mobile phone.” The London event will take place in Crystal Palace, and will be followed by classes in Ashton Court, Bristol and Birmingham Central Library on 5 and 7 February, respectively. Book your place online via the website below.

Website: Photography Made Simple

Google has officially announced its Nexus One smartphone, which has a large touch-sensitive screen and a 5-megapixel camera on board. The slim phone, which was unveiled at Google’s Mountain view headquarters, runs Google’s own Android operating system. The Nexus One handset, which features a 3.7” AMOLED display with 800x480 pixels, microSD card compatibility and a 5-megapixel auto focus camera with a LED flash, will be sold via Google’s website. The unlocked version costs $530. As to the camera part, it has a fixed focal-length lens that can focus down to 6cm, provides the user with an opportunity to geotag their photos using information from the built-in AGPS receiver, and can also shoot movies at a resolution of 720x480 pixels and a frame rate of at least 20fps.

Fujitsu has introduced the 12.2-megapixel docomo PRIME Series F-01B water and dust resistant camera phone. To make the most of its onboard camera, the new phone utilises Fujitsu’s Milbeaut Mobile image-processing engine, and incorporates face recognition, smile detection, tracking focus, a 3.4” touch-sensitive screen and a 28mm equivalent lens. In addition to these, Fujitsu claims a maximum sensitivity of ISO 6,400/39° for full-resolution stills and an incredible (for a camera phone anyway) ISO 25,600/45° for 1920x1080-pixel images. The Fujitsu F-01B will be available from NTT DOCOMO, INC. as of 20 November 2009. Pricing to be confirmed.

Website: Fujitsu

The Casio Exilim CA003 is a twelve-megapixel camera phone with 3x optical zoom (28-84mm equivalent) and autofocus. According to Engadget, the Casio Exilim CA003 has a 3.3-inch WVGA OLED screen, integrated GPS and Wi-Fi support. It also boasts a 20fps burst mode, though the buffer appears to be big enough to accommodate one second’s worth of images only. The Casio Eximilm CA003 camera phone records images on microSD memory cards of up to 16GB. A smaller-resolution sister model, the eight-megapixel Casio Exilim CA004, has also been announced. It comes with a slightly smaller screen and supports cards of up to 2GB only, but is otherwise identical to the CA003. There is no word on international availability and pricing.

Via Engadget

Texas Instruments have announced the OMAP-DM515 coprocessor, which delivers up to 20-megapixel still imaging capabilities, as well as 720p HD camcorder functionality.  Note that, as with the Silicon Image announcement posted earlier today, it remains to be seen if any sensor manufacturer will ever actually bother to produce such high-resolution sensors for camera phones, and if any optics maker can come up with a lens that can support them, but the announcements indicate that the processing power will be there to handle the amount of data such a sensor would generate.

Ontela released survey results today that are said to indicate the “imminent death of the traditional film camera” amongst U.S. consumers. The last three years of data have shown a steady decline in people who report owning a traditional film camera, decreasing from 67% in 2007, to 61% in 2008, and dropping all the way to 48% in 2009. Conversely, camera phones continue to grow in ubiquity, going from just 70% reporting that they owned a phone with a camera in 2007, to 78% in 2008 and 87% in 2009. Despite respondents’ growing ownership of camera phones and usage of data, their ability to get the pictures off their phones to their PCs or the web has stayed consistently low. When asked to upload a picture to the web, 74% of respondents failed in 2007, compared to 81% in 2008 and 61% in 2009. Users were frustrated, however, since 90% expressed a desire to upload pictures. Some of the top desired destinations included the user’s own computer hard drive at 71%, Facebook at 54% and Photobucket at 25%.

Tessera has announced its FotoNation Face Recognition technology, which performs automatic identification of specific human faces in camera equipped mobile devices. This new embedded imaging solution will enable manufacturers to quickly and cost-effectively integrate face recognition capabilities directly into devices such as cell phones, the company says. The FotoNation FaceRecognition technology is available for a number of platforms and requires only moderate computational and memory resources. The performance is claimed to be robust in the presence of various factors that make face recognition difficult such as changes in lighting conditions, facial expression and viewing angle/distance. The FotoNation FaceRecognition solution is available now for licensing from Tessera.

Samsung has officially announced the Samsung SCH-W880, also called the Samsung AMOLED 12M - a 12-megapixel digital camera with 3x optical zoom and a phone inside. Alternatively, you could call it a 12-megapixel camera phone with optical zoom, but the SCH-W880 has real camera controls such as a mode dial and a zoom rocker encircling a shutter release button. The rear panel features a 3.3” AMOLED display that allegedly boasts a resolution of 800x480 pixels. Touch-sensitive autofocus, image stabilisation and 720p video capture round off the features list. The SCH-W880 has a generous 4GB of internal memory, expandable by up to 32GB via Micro SD cards. According to Engadget, the Samsung SCH-W880 is going to hit the [Korean] market in October, but there is no word on international availability or pricing.

Via Engadget

Altek has unveiled the altek T8680, a twelve-megapixel camera phone with 3x optical zoom. Zoom lenses are still very much a rarity on camera phones, which is what makes this announcement interesting. Altek Corporation itself is a Taiwanese company which has been producing digital cameras and camera modules for cell phones, and the T8680 is apparently the first mobile handset being marketed under its own brand name. The most important highlight of the altek T8680 is of course its lens, which spans focal lengths ranging from 6.2mm to 18.6mm, equivalent to 35-105mm in 35mm terms. The maximum aperture is f3 at the wide end and f5.6 at maximum telephoto. The close-focus point is at 5cm. Other high points include a choice of centre-weighted, spot and matrix metering, a sensor and an imaging processor developed in-house, touch focus function and a VGA video mode. The altek press release, which you can read in its entirety after the break, talks about entering the “Mainland China market” with this product, and it is currently unclear whether the T8680 will be sold in other markets or not.

Apple has announced the Apple iPhone 3G S, billed as “the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet”, with features like video recording and hands free voice control. Other highlights include a new operating system, improved battery life, support for 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, built-in GPS, and a 3-megapixel digital camera with an auto-focus lens. With the new “tap to focus” feature, you simply touch the display to select an object or area of interest and the camera automatically re-adjusts focus and exposure. Also, you can send photos and video by email or MMS and post them to MobileMe or YouTube with just one tap. The iPhone 3G S will be available in the UK on June 19th with pricing available at launch. The US price is $199 for the 16GB version, and $299 for the 32GB variant.