[asafira]

I did my PhD in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) physics, and despite "optical" being part of that I realized midway that I didn't know enough about how regular cameras worked!

It didn't take very long to learn, and it turned out to be extremely important in the work I did during the early days at Waymo and later at Motional.

I wanted to pass along this fun video from several years ago that discusses HDR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkQJdaGGVM8 . It's short and fun, I recommend it to all HN readers.

Separately, if you want a more serious introduction to digital photography, I recommend the lectures by Marc Levoy from his Stanford course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7HrM-fk_Rc&list=PL8ungNrvUY... . I believe he runs his own group at Adobe now after leading a successful effort at Google making their pixel cameras the best in the industry for a couple of years. (And then everyone more-or-less caught up, just like with most tech improvements in the history of smartphones).

[bigtones]

That Kevin Chen video using Excel was amazing and hilarious. Thanks.

[spookie]

Try capturing fire with a non-Sony phone and a Sony phone. At least Samsung doesn't color correct blackbodies right and the flame looks nothing like reality.

[brcmthrowaway]

Pixel camera hardware or software? Isnt there only one vendor for sensors - Sony?

[dawidpotocki]

Samsung also makes sensors for phones. IIRC some Pixels use their sensors.

[asafira]

He worked mostly on the software side, but of course had important input into what sensors and processors were chosen for the phones.