If you’re an iPhone user, you already know that the 5 megapixel iPhone 4 camera was a huge jump up from the 3GS…but what will happen with the iPhone 5? There’s been mutterings amongst those following the Apple rumors that the next generation iPhone camera could go as high as 8 megapixels, a great feat for such a slim-line phone.

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So what’s got the rumor mill going? There’s been a few recent events that have started tongues wagging with speculation. In previous years, OmniVision have provided many of the camera sensors fitted in iPhones and recent developments in technology have allowed OmniVision to create a higher pixel density in the same compact sensor. Perfect! Right?

Well, maybe not. It seems OmniVision are in short supply of these higher powered compact sensors and won’t have enough stock to meet the demand of the iPhone 5. So what’s Apple to do? They’ll have to partner with someone else. And that someone else will probably be Sony. A matter that will surely be cause for major debate amongst diehard iPhone photographers.

Despite the inevitable backlash, Sony is a likely partner for Apple as they’ve been using 8 megapixel technology in compact sensors for their Xperia Pro phones for quite some time now. Sony’s jumpstart on OmniVision looks to shake things up for the iPhone 5 camera.

But the real question to look at here is, will an 8 megapixel camera be that much better? Maybe not.
There’s been a lot of feedback from smartphone owners with phones that already employ 8mp cameras (such as the Droid X and the EVO 4G) that the low-light performance of their camera is practically worthless. Without delving into too much detail, the major reduction in low-light capability is down to the fact that the 8MP sensor is likely to be a drop-in replacement for the 5MP camera that the iPhone 4 is already using. This is a massive problem because the sensor size has a direct correlation to the clarity of the pixels. When you cram more pixels into a sensor the same size the quality actually decreases. Not so clever now eh? Add to that the fact that an 8MP camera requires a heck of a lot more storage space, as photo and video files are larger, and this update is looking less and less like a good idea…but one that Apple will likely employ anyway.

What do you think of the trade-off? Are more megapixels worth swapping for even poorer low-light quality?