Next iPhone will have 'DSLR quality' camera

The next version of the iPhone will see the “biggest camera jump ever” and rival even dedicated DSLRs on image quality, according to sources.

Apple blogger John Gruber, who has a long history of scoops on the company, attributes the information – not for the first time – to a “birdie of a birdie”.

“The specific thing I heard is that next year’s camera might be the biggest camera jump ever,” he said in a recent podcast.

“I don't even know what sense this makes, but I've heard that it's some kind of weird two-lens system where the back camera uses two lenses and it somehow takes it up into DSLR quality imagery.”

That chip could well have been revealed. Sony announced a new image sensor called the Exmoor RS this week, which will have a “21 effective mega pixel” ability. As Gruber himself points out, Apple has long used Sony sensors in its iPhones.

But there are other possibilities. The HTC One M8 has a "Duo Camera" system which includes two sensors that combine information to produce images. Website MacRumors suggests that it could also refer to a system being developed by Corephotonics.

But what exactly the “two lens” system refers to is unclear, and is likely to remain so until the launch next year.

The very first iPhone came with a two megapixel camera, which was upgraded to 3.2 megapixels in the 3GS and five megapixels in the iPhone 4. With the iPhone 4S in 2011 the camera was boosted to eight megapixels, but has remained stagnant ever since.

So an upgrade for the iPhone camera is certainly due. The Samsung Galaxy S5, for example, has a 16 megapixel sensor.

New iPhone launches have settled into a regular update schedule that sees new models each September. For several years we have seen a major update which increases the model number every other year, followed by an “S” version that brings minor updates.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were launched this September, potentially making September 2015’s launch the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.