Sony has teased a possible new feature for its Xperia range of devices that will improve smartphone photography potential.
The Japan-based electronics giant suggested that it may offer RAW image capture of future handsets.
Writing on the Sony Mobile forum, a spokesperson said: “As always, we’re monitoring our customer expectations and regarding supporting taking pictures in RAW format,
LG announced its new flagship LG G4 smartphone earlier this week, revealing that the device would offer RAW image capture.
RAW image files are shots that have not been processed – or minimally processed, at least – by camera or device software.
This means that they’re not ready to be printed immediately, for instance, but have the bonus of retaining more original information compared to processed formats like TIFF or JPEG.
Related: Sony Xperia Z4 release date
Sony is a big player in the camera market, and produces its own image sensors for the Xperia smartphone range. So why doesn’t it already offer RAW mode in the Xperia manual camera settings?
“Android 5.0 supports the new camera features via android.hardware.camera2, and Google defines three modes for the new camera features: Legacy mode (no support RAW capture), Limited mode (optional capability for RAW capture), Full mode (optional capability for RAW capture),” explained the spokesperson.
“Currently, Xperia supports Legacy mode in our Lollipop update, which incorporate features and functionality in addition to our already renowned camera experience.”
Would you be interested in a smartphone that offers RAW image capture? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.