Which would be the best hardware for Open Camera

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Hi. I am following the Fairphone project for a while. They look for a modular point of view for smartphones, which includes the possibility to upgrade the camera. Since they upgrade the camera every few time, and they also are thinking in a new smartphone model, I was thinking in wich would be the best option for them to have the best open camera performance. Which would be the best camera sensor/lens/…, or the best combination of SoC and Camera sensor/lens/… to make Open Camera to work the best?

The last camera upgrade from them it has been this:
Rear camera: 12MP CMOS sensor with dual flash (Omnivision OV12870 – BSI)
Front camera: 5MP CMOS sensor (Omnivision OV5670)

Since they are constantly in touch with their community and take their opinion in consideration, besides that they are triying to give a good open source experience, what would be a next good upgrade from an Open Camera point of view?

Most of the time having a better hardware but with less software optimization is worst than having a less advanced hardware but greatly optimized. This is why I am curious about this question, since Open Camera is the most popular camera app used by Fairphone users.

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If I got it right, they upgraded the camera modules just once and I would not know of another update plan.

Regarding your question, I have to admit, that I am not sure, if that can be really answered.

  1. What is the meaning of “best” hardware? Is it picture quality, feature list …; at any price?
  2. Omnivision alone offers 16 sensors above 13 MP and 17 of 8 to 13 MP.
  3. Add to that the number of possible lenses and SoCs

This makes for a very large number of possible hardware solutions.
And who could have tested even a relevant part of those setups with OpenCamera?

Don’t get me wrong, I think, that your question is quite interesting and I really would like to learn the answer. I just hope, that FP is testing some setups and chosing the best one. Of course they have to have an eye on the budget.

Maybe your question could be expanded to the points:

  • What do you consider to be important in the camera of your smart phone? Megapixels, focal length, zoom?
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