eli5: What is the purpose and/or advantage of multiple cameras and lenses on a phone?

Question

As the title suggests, I don’t understand how this works.

In: 41

Answer 1

When you zoom in with your phone and take a picture, your phone just crops the image. If you want to properly zoom in without compromising the quality of the image, you’ll need to either move the lens or use a more powerful one. Using multiple cameras is easier than a telescoping lens on a mobile phone.

If you have multiple cameras on your phone, you can cover one with your finger to see which one is being accessed, then zoom in. At a certain point, your phone will switch to a different camera.