camera question 16x9 or 4x3

[lacough]

I noticed you only get 12mp photos in 4x3 mode, and if you go to 16x9 or full screen, it drops to 8mp. I believe this is the case on most phones. The question is, do you shoot in one vs the other and why?

Thanks

 

[Mooncatt]

I always shoot in the native resolution for the most flexibility in cropping. I use the V20, though, which is a 4x3 sensor and it's the 16x9 shooting that would get cropped I'm camera.

 

[PowrDroid]

I noticed you only get 12mp photos in 4x3 mode, and if you go to 16x9 or full screen, it drops to 8mp. I believe this is the case on most phones. The question is, do you shoot in one vs the other and why?

Thanks

I always shoot in the format that gives me the biggest picture, in this case, the 4:3 12MB mode. You can always crop down to 16:9.

 

[chanchan05]

The 16:9 photo is just basically the 4:3 photo with sections cropped. Basically the pixel sensors on the camera are arranged in a 4:3 orientation, so to achieve the 16:9, they turn some off, or auto crop the resulting picture.

 

[TraderGary]

I choose to use 4:3. Although 16:9 fills the screen, it's actually lower resolution because it crops the actual sensor image. I prefer to shoot in the highest resolution and get the highest resolution possible from the sensor. If I'm going to crop, then I can crop the image any way I want.

 

[sulla1965]

I use 16:9 for landscapes. 4:3 for regular shots of things.

 

[lacough]

thank you all!

 

[LeoRex]

I don't really see any use case for setting a camera on anything other than it's native, full resolution. Whether it's 16x9 to 4x3, or vice versa, you're chopping off a third of the photo... Either of the sides or the top and bottom.

Gone for good.

And that's even more so when you consider that you can crop to whatever size and shape you want within seconds of taking the shot... While still keeping the original.

 

[ddavid544]

I noticed you only get 12mp photos in 4x3 mode, and if you go to 16x9 or full screen, it drops to 8mp. I believe this is the case on most phones. The question is, do you shoot in one vs the other and why?

Thanks

I am actually obsessed with this issue. The fact is the imager aspect ratio is 4x3 which means the Megapixel spec like 12MP is only if you shoot in 4x3. I just chatted with Apple for iPhone 11 16x9 spec and they don't publish something so basic. But they were kind enough to take a photo in 16x9 with the "12MP" iPhone 11 pro and the size was 4032x2268 (exactly 16x9 ratio) but the math comes to 9.1Mpixel. So I told them their 12MP spec is only for square people who are happy posting "square" pics on Facebook as no one has time to resize using app or photoshop let alone lose 3 Megapixels from their 12MP spec!

The 4x3 native ratio is like old 4x3 TV and your TV screen will have black bars on sides just like the $1100+ iPhone 11 series. Now, I know very well # Megapixels is NOT the most important criteria for good photo.

However look how many MP there are today vs. 2MP cameras years ago? 10 years from now your kids looking at their baby pics today will laugh at these 9.1MP photos taken by $1100 iPhone at 16x9. And they also will laugh at 12MP taken at 4x3.

So for those looking for high res camera with native 16x9 imager, they don't exist EXCEPT:

What if I told you that you can by 11 Galaxy S6 phones instead of iPhone 11 ($100 each today ?)

And would you believe only this model has a NATIVE 16x9 imager at 16 MP? But a 5 year old phone is a dinosaur in technology. So the latest iPhone today gives 9.1MP due to cropping the original 4x3, while my dinosaur Galaxy S6 has native 16x9 "rectangular" imager taking 16x9 at full spec of 16 MP. All my facebook pics are 16x9 native while all my Apple friends are "square" 4x3 by default. How can you appreciate a nice landscape photo if viewed on ancient 4x3 TV vs. 16x9 TV? So as of 4Q2019, the highest iPhone model cannot compete in # pixels with my dinosaur.

So think about 10 years from now as your kids view them on 10 years advanced monitors or 8K TV set.... Ok so I gave you one solution, Galaxy S6, for 16MP 16x9, if you care about # pixels.

 

[Fred98TJ]

The Sony sensor in the S6, the IMX240, is a 16:9 sized sensor (5312 x2988). Neither Sony, nor anyone else, is making 16:9 sized sensors these days for CP’s.
The only way to get the full sensor resolution on any camera is to shoot it it’s native sensor size aspect ratio.
If that doesn’t suit your needs, wants, whatever, then stick with your dinosaur.
So your choices are stick with your older and getting dated sensor in the dinosaur or move on with life.