samsunggalaxys5_1.jpg

Samsung's smartphone cameras are good, but not great. But now, with the Galaxy S5, that's all taken a step forward. It has nothing to do with megapixels, instead this time it's about a weird sounding feature called "phase-detect" autofocus. It allows the camera to focus in just .3 seconds. That's incredible!

According to Samsung, that's the fastest in the world, and it could change the camera scene. The S5 has a higher resolution camera at 16 megapixels, but what's more important is that it is the first camera on a smartphone to use phase detect autofocus.

Digital cameras don't have a mirrorbox,  point-and-shoots and mirrorless cameras—use contrast detection autofocus. This makes nearby pixels measured and the camera's lens is adjusted until the contrast is maximized. Sounds good, but this system has its drawbacks. It is slow and coarse.

Phase detection autofocus was commonly used on SLR cameras with mirrors, but now that mirrorless cameras are becoming a trend over the last couple of years, "hybrid" systems enable shoters like the Sony A6000 to focus crazy fast.

We'll have to check out the S5 before we sing more praises, but this feature should make picture taking really fast.