Why do we make double-triple-quadruple eyed cameras in smartphones instead of just improving the specs and keeping one lens?
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The one key point perhaps not emphasized by other posts thus far:
* They do mention benefit of individual lenses having particular strengths to overcome each other’s weaknesses (zoom, macro, normal, etc.)
* They also mention marketing and product sales benefits of having “new features not seen before.”
What I haven’t seen described is perhaps another of the most important points.
These cameras are functionally and practically *better* than many full, proper cameras:
* Most cameras have one lens at a time. You can switch, but you have to purchase, carry, and actually switch lenses on the fly. Some scenarios it isn’t physically possible to switch lenses in time to capture a shot a few different ways in real time.
* Sensors are more sensitive each year, making recent iPhones more sensitive than DSLRs of years past.
* People mocking “photographs by AI” as shallow marketing jargon… well it’s partly jargon, but it’s also partly true. For layperson who doesn’t understand optics enough to know which lens to use here and there, the phone has freedom to choose for you based upon reasonably understandable settings. Cameras with the one lens? Not so much.
* Phones with multiple lenses can choose lens, capture image over time, then choose whether and how to stack those frames into one composite image. Cameras? Not so much — it’s possible, but high end and with high end software.
What’s remarkable to me, I used to mock phone cameras, from back when they were bad pixelated EGA images. They’re now comparable or better image quality than many cameras *and* most people always have it with them. One tap and the camera is ready to go. Cameras? Camera bag, lenses, film/SD CARD. (Remember film? Haha. And dark rooms? Haha. Still fun tho.)
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