Ever wondered why there appears to be lots of smartphones today with blistering amounts of cameras at the back of them? Once upon a time it was the ideal for a mobile phone to possess front and back cameras, today a phone can have up to 3 lenses in front, with up to 5 lenses behind. But what necessitated this innovation? Let me take you through this new Cam Era.
Camera has and will always be an important feature on smartphones. The first camera phone was manufactured by Samsung and released in South Korea in June 2000, though it’s argued that Sharp produced the first camera phone that year. A cellphone that happens to have a camera in the mid 2000s is considered exciting. Picture quality wasn’t really a thing as the ability for a mobile device to capture moments alone was satisfying. The convenience it provided was spectacular. That was until Nokia, Samsung, Sony and iPhone blazed the trail of camera phones starting at 0.3Megapixels all through 2 and 5. In recent years, manufacturers have added more and more lenses to the camera and with one of them acting as the main lens, here’s what each of the other lenses function as;
Wide Angle Lens
This lens helps the camera capture more view – in other words, it fits more in the shot. It widens the camera. Some phones are now equipped with ultra-wide angle lens to offer even more view. Eg, the Samsung Galaxy S10. Phones with an extra lens in front or back promises better selfies or group photos.
Depth Sensor
If you find a phone with 3 lenses at the back, then one of them is responsible for sensing depth, telling your camera how far the objects in the photo are, whats in front and whats behind. This is an essential use for Augmented Reality rendering, as well as automatic background blur.
Telephoto Lens
Its field of view on this type of lens is narrow, but this lens improves zoom when combined with others. By using a telephoto lens with a second lens and sensor, your phone’s camera can get closer to what’s happening without moving parts. On a standard digital camera, as an example, you would notice the lens extend as it zoomed in. Telephoto lenses are also used to create those fancy bokeh or focus effects in portrait mode. By combining the data from multiple lenses, your phone is able to understand how close objects are, blurring the background and bringing the foreground into focus. Phones without this camera still achieve this by making smart guesses.
