4 takeaways from the Snapdragon mobile photography Twitter Spaces chat

Most photos captured today are done so with smartphone cameras. In the past decade, smartphones have snatched the mantle away from film and DSLR cameras — and Snapdragon technology has been at the forefront of that transition. Qualcomm Technologies camera experts Judd Heape (VP, Product Management), PJ Jacobowitz (Staff Mgr, Product Marketing), and Zack Zhou (Sr Dir, Product Management) recently sat down for a Twitter Spaces chat about all things Snapdragon camera tech, including Snapdragon Sight™, the Qualcomm Spectra™ image signal processor (ISP), and an engine dedicated exclusively to creating the perfect background blur, known as “bokeh” (which is pronounced BOKAY). Here are four key takeaways from that conversation.

1. Snapdragon Sight Technology is changing mobile photography

Snapdragon Sight Technology encompasses the latest suite of camera technologies available in our most advanced mobile platform to date, the Snapdragon^® 8 Gen 1. Features include mega low-light photo capture, first-in-mobile 8K video recording, and the ability to create images with more than one billion shades of color. But we can’t discuss Snapdragon Sight without highlighting the Spectra ISP — our first ever 18-bit ISP.

2. Qualcomm Spectra ISP: extreme dynamic range, astonishing speed, stunning 8K HDR video, and more

You won’t find an 18-bit ISP in most legacy and professional cameras, let alone most smartphone cameras. The Qualcomm Spectra ISP delivers extreme dynamic range, color, and sharpness, with speeds of up to 3.2 gigapixels per second. It’s also a triple-ISP, which means users can capture photos and videos from three separate cameras simultaneously. Capture one brilliant photo with 200 MP or combine three 36 MP cameras and capture brilliant video in 30 frames per second with zero shutter lag.

Before Qualcomm Spectra, our most advanced ISP was 14 bits. Four bits might not sound like a huge leap, but it translates to an ISP that captures 4,096 times the amount of data than its predecessor. For the photo gearheads out there, it also means you get an additional four stops — vastly increasing the dynamic range of your images. Shooting at night is a breeze — the Qualcomm Spectra ISP has a dedicated low light engine that captures 30 images in one second, combining them to make one perfect picture — and AI-accelerated features like a dedicated bokeh engine enable painterly images with artfully blurred backgrounds.

3. Dazzling depth of field with an engine for visual analytics (EVA)

About those artfully blurred backgrounds. Snapdragon Sight utilizes an engine for visual analytics (EVA) — a unique characteristic of devices powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform. The EVA enables the building of depth maps, which are critical in computational photography. Depth maps help cameras understand not just the 2D world, but the 3D world as well. Understanding 3D and depth becomes extremely important when you want to blur the background of images — the camera needs to be able to locate the foreground and background.

Say you’re photographing a group of friends in your backyard, and they’re backdropped by a fence draped with ivy and various brilliantly colored flowers. The EVA enables your camera to understand that your friends are 10 feet away, while the fence, ivy, and flowers are 20 feet away. The EVA works in concert with the Qualcomm Spectra ISP to calculate the different depths and deliver a hypnotic bokeh effect.

4. User-friendly interface inspires Snapdragon Insiders to create breathtaking images

The Snapdragon Insiders community continues to grow — we’ve topped the 4 million¹ mark globally! — and a huge part of the appeal is the sharing of photographs among members. (Search #ShotOnSnapdragon on Twitter and Instagram for proof.)

One of those Insiders — Ryan Cleary (known as @spintheweedawg on Twitter) — said he loves shooting and editing on Snapdragon devices for a number of different reasons, but specifically appreciates the quality of his smartphone display, which makes editing both accessible and quick. “The changes you’ve made to advance mobile photography technology have really brought it to the next level,” he says. “Without a doubt, it really is getting on par with DSLR.”

Another Insider — @M1K4_3L on Twitter — said he appreciates how easy Snapdragon camera tech has made it for him to create long exposure photographs. He said the user-friendly interface and foolproof controls make it easy to play with shutter speed and ISO controls, while a simple tripod and Bluetooth^® trigger allow him to get the perfect long exposure.

Of course, this is just scratching the surface of what’s possible with Snapdragon mobile photography capabilities. For more in-depth information about Snapdragon Sight technologies and the Qualcomm Spectra ISP, listen to the full conversation.

Want to learn more about Snapdragon Sight and the Spectra ISP? Join the discussion below.