Sony’s new 64MP sensor could be a game-changer for telephoto cameras

• Sony has announced a new camera sensor designed for phones
• It has an unusual pixel structure that improves its resolution
• The company highlights it as being a particularly good fit for telephoto cameras

Telephoto cameras are often a weak link in smartphone camera arrays. Many phones don’t offer them at all, and those that do often use smaller sensors or fewer megapixels than their wide and ultra-wide counterparts. But a new Sony sensor could deliver a big telephoto upgrade if the best camera phones incorporate it.

The Sony LYTIA 610 is the industry’s first mass-produced sensor to have an ‘RB2×2 On Chip Lens (OCL) pixel structure.’ We won’t get too weighed down in technical details, but the upshot is that, according to Sony, this design achieves both “improved resolution and excellent autofocusing” at the same time.

There’s a greater than 20% improvement in spatial resolution (meaning its ability to resolve fine details) compared to conventional Sony sensors with the same pixel size, and the company specifically highlights telephoto cameras as benefiting from all this.

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Plus, this sensor also offers an improved readout speed, allowing for 4K 120fps video recording and 4K 60fps HDR recording. So it could prove beneficial for videos as well as photos.