According to Samsung’s product catalogue (first seen by SammyHub), the new BIS CMOS Image Sensor S5K3L2 is in process of development that will be supporting 4208 x 3120 pixels image resolution in total, pixel size of 1.12µm, optical format 1/3” and frame rate of 30fps.
Last year Samsung announced 12 Megapixels CIS S5K3L1, that is now under mass production state and will be seen in near future in devices if all goes well for Samsung.
There are no extended official detail about the new 13.1MP image sensor, however I tried to expand it a little bit more for knowing the maximum effective resolution from the sensor that it would support.
Under the Hood
Looks like Samsung takes the same approach as Nokia did on 808 PureView and Lumia 920’s custom made sensors to bring out the true concept of 16:9 aspect ratio that is, to have wider horizontal field view instead of just cropping from the images of 4:3 aspect ratio.
Samsung’s under development CMOS Image Sensor is 13.1 Megapixels in total area having maximum resolution of 4208 pixels wider and 3120 pixels taller. However to maintain standard aspect ratios at maximum resolutions, 4:3 mode will be using full height of the image sensor but lesser width, whereas 16:9 mode will be using full width of the sensor but lesser height which will end up with providing the following resolutions at their respective aspect ratios.
Maximum Effective Resolutions at standard aspect ratios:
- 4:3 aspect ratio: 4160 x 3120 pixels (13 Megapixels)
- 16:9 aspect ratio: 4208 x 2367 pixels (10 Megapixels)
The under-the-hood detail is not official from Samsung. It was just derived from some small calculations considering the current standard aspect ratios (4:3, 16:9) that most probably Samsung or any other manufacturer would follow to use this sensor while making consumer devices e.g. camera phones/tablets.
