I strongly disagree with your statement. Let me preface this by saying that I am a physicist and I develop photosensors for a living. Nothing related to phone cameras, but I know what a photodiode is, and I know what resolution means
It is more than obvious that grouping four pixels is a POSSIBILITY offered by this hardware for enhancing low light sensitivity and saving storage, which makes perfect sense.
It is not at all obvious that there is no possibility of NOT grouping them.
The presence of these lines in particular, in the description:
- 48 megapixels resolution with 12 megapixel output
- 0.8um, 8000x6000 (48MP)
seems to indicate that it is possible to forfeit the low light sensitivity to take a full resolution picture using 8000x6000 pixels (each segmented in 3 or 4 color subpixels). This would be a perfectly reasonable use case, and something that sounds technically plausible in my opinion, and it is what I understood initially.
Additionally, the use of the word resolution implies the ability to resolve distinct point sources as distinct if they fall in separate pixels. Grouping four pixels permanently prevents one from “resolving” and therefore is factually incorrect in this case.
As for the MegaPhotosites post that @anon9989719 linked, the only search result I get for “MegaPhotosites” is that very page, which to me is sufficient to say that they just made up the fact that MP can be used to mean that. Furthermore, the store page uses MP, not MPx for the 12 megapixel sensor of Fairphone 3, which actually has 12 million usable pixels i.e. can produce 4000x3000 RGB images. It stands to reason that the same term be used to mean the same thing across all products in the store.
IANAL, but I feel like there will be at least some jurisdictions within the EU that would consider this actual false advertising.
Regardless, I am happy that the law gives me the ability to return this product within 14 days without having to go through the hassle of litigating this. I am disappointed that I wasted time pursuing this upgrade path instead of getting a phone which an actual good camera.
I would not even waste time trying to argue my point of view, but seeing as Fairphone as a company seems interested in doing better from other points of view, I decided to dedicate it some time to give my opinion.
Edit to add: I don’t know who here is or isn’t speaking as a representative of the company, and I am not suggesting people in this thread are responsible for the store page contents. They are however responsible for implying people don’t read, instead of admitting that certain statements can very easily be interpreted in different ways. I stand by my interpretation of the lines above.
Further edit to add: I initially read the description and made my purchase decision based on the Italian version of the store page, which states:
“Grazie alla tecnologia di pixel binning, il nostro nuovo sensore ad alta definizione da 48 megapixel è sempre pronto, ANCHE con una scarsa luminosità.
Qui si uniscono quattro pixel per formare un solo grande superpixel, che cattura quattro volte più luce, ma senza occupare troppo spazio sul tuo telefono (corrisponde a foto da 12 megapixel).”
This text is very clearly (by the use of the word “anche” meaning also, as well) indicating that the pixel binning is only one of multiple operating modes, and that there are indeed 48 MegaPIXELs that one could use.
