If they could save money by doing everything with one camera and lens, don’t you think they would?
People want better pictures. The only solution engineers could figure out was to put more camera modules. Why do you care how it’s done? One bump or ten, the phone is already thicker.
phone companies have been known to make stupid decisions before. Apple uses glass on the back of their phones, even though it breaks incredibly easy. Up until more recent models the back glass was incredibly aggressively bonded to the back chassis of the phone, making it basically impossible to replace.
If i had to guess, it’s the cheapest way, to get “more” features and “quality” out of a phone. Like a gimmick. I’m almost certain it’s possible to just put in a better camera sensor, they’ve been doing that on every model for decades. Chances are they just took the easy route, since it adds a unique feature, that has never been seen before, and makes it easily marketable. And besides, for people like me who barely use the camera, paying for upwards of 5 cameras, when i only use 2. More than likely 1, is completely useless to me. I’d be more inclined to pay for a single better camera, than multiple cameras i probably wont use.
Digital cameras were a multi billion dollar business before smartphones existed. Over 100 million digital cameras were sold each and every year.
I’m almost certain it’s possible to just put in a better camera sensor
You are absolutely wrong. Look at the physical size of digital cameras. Lenses have physical limitations. Higher density sensors are diffraction limited. That is you can’t make the sensor pixel element smaller because it is smaller than the wavelength of light. Cameras don’t look like this https://spuelbeck.net/canon-ef-300mm-f28/ just for fun. It’s physically necessary for the lens to be that large.
since it adds a unique feature,
It takes a better picture. Calling a better picture a gimmick is like calling a faster CPU a gimmick. Some people want better photos.
Ranting about cameras you don’t use is like ranting about CPU cores you don’t use. I don’t game on my phone, where’s my phone without a GPU??? Stupid GPU gimmick.
idk i think a design choice is a pretty objective feature. Preference and liking it? Pretty subjective, sure. That still doesn’t change that.
it might take a better picture, it depends on how you define better. More versatile camera? Sure. Better? Eh, idk. And besides, pretty much every phone ever these days has some sort of built it AI processing done on the photos, because apparently thats a thing now. Even then it doesn’t stop you from taking a worse photo, because you literally have different cameras, for different things, you can just straight up use the wrong camera now. As well as other cool feature like visual artifacting due to camera switching, because it turns out when you put two cameras in two different places, they’re in two different places, and can’t exactly behave in an interchangeable manner.
I guess you could “fix” those issues in software, but thats another story entirely.
idk people have different opinions for gimmicks apparently. I just think having more than one camera is stupid, i’d rather have one decent camera, and a better/cheaper phone otherwise. I barely use it’s camera as is.
it’s a little fundamentally different to having a lot of cpu cores, or a gpu. Or a faster cpu because for some reason you also threw that in there. A faster cpu is generally advantageous as pretty much every piece of software has some amount of sequential code base in it. The only place it wouldn’t make sense is somewhere you quite literally cannot use that processing power. Like a router. Those run on such light hardware you would be wasting entire cycles on the cpu before it can even start another process.
More cpu cores is also generally advantageous, especially in the modern era where people play games, and games like more cores now, or if you edit video, like i do, more cores is objectively more helpful, even if you dont use them 90% of the time. Or even if you just want more multitasking capability. A server for instance really likes cores because it can run a lot of different processes simultaneously. Some servers benefit from high single core freq for instance, i know mine does.
gpus are generally beneficial, i certainly wouldn’t buy a gaming phone to use as a phone for what i do, though apparently they have massive batteries so that would likely outweigh that con? Though phone hardware is another beef i have entirely, that’s a different story.
gpus are similarly useful, considering that they’re a general purpose computing tool, much like cpu, though for different calculations. As opposed to a 3x optical zoom lensed camera. Which is kind of neat ig, i barely take pictures with my phone though. I dont really know why i would want 4 other cameras. Just seems like a waste of money for me.
A choice of material to make a phone feel better is subjective. A better camera is capable of resolving details that another camera cannot. That’s objective. Whereas one person might like the feel of glass while another doesn’t. A lens that matches the distance where you need to resolve detail gives you a better image.
Even then it doesn’t stop you from taking a worse photo
Using a tool wrong is completely irrelevant to whether one tool is capable of giving better results.
A faster cpu is generally advantageous as pretty much every piece of software
My phone from 3 years ago was fast enough. I’m not writing/compiling code on my phone.
edit video,
You edit video on your phone? But you claimed you don’t care about the camera quality and barely even use it.
A choice of material to make a phone feel better is subjective. A better camera is capable of resolving details that another camera cannot.
a material choice preference is subjective, the manufacturer using a specific material over another one is an objective state of that product, though it’s also fair to argue that it was an objectively bad choice, on a product that is quite literally, known for breaking, all the time. Except now its TWICE as likely to break as it was before. On paper a better camera is objectively better. But on paper the users preference of what they want something to do is also objective. I don’t care that X product, can do Y feature if i am literally never going to touch it. Regardless of whether or not it is objectively better or worse, it is quite literally, an objective waste of time and money on my end.
Using a tool wrong is completely irrelevant to whether one tool is capable of giving better results.
This would be why they make actual cameras, that you can take actually bad photos with, but also allow you to take actually good photos with. On a product that has a feature for “convenience” there is a point where that convenience becomes more of a hassle, and then i or other consumers stop caring about it.
You edit video on your phone? But you claimed you don’t care about the camera quality and barely even use it.
when did i ever say i do that with my phone? I’m writing these comments from a computer, as evidenced by the fact that i am on lemmy, the statistical likelihood that i am a computer enthusiast is significantly higher.
My phone from 3 years ago was fast enough. I’m not writing/compiling code on my phone.
Remember the part where i mentioned my server? Yeah that’s a computer. You remember the other example i mentioned where faster cpu doesn’t make sense, a router? You wanna know whats equivalent to that? My phone. Also the part where i said “generally” that doesnt apply to everything.
And even then i don’t edit real footage, i edited mostly screen recorded footage. I have edited at least one video though. The video res is high enough, and the frame rate is decent. It looks fine. (that was on my shitbox android with one camera) If i wanted anything more than that, i would buy an actual camera, which would get me better image quality, and better workflows as well. Even then dankpods, a creator known for recording on an iphone, has recently gotten completely fed up with using an iphone to record (it’s almost like they’re not very good at what they’re trying to be)
that statement also implies you dont use that phone anymore, fun fact, my phone is uh. 7 years old now. It’s not particularly fast, which is the fault of android. But it does exist, and mostly works (again the fault of android).
“, i barely take pictures with my phone though.”
little fun fact, i have more accidental screenshots taken than actual real photos taken on my phone in the last 6 months. I literally don’t use the camera LOL.
presumably by the fact that you mentioned code writing, you are also not a chronic phone user, like myself. So im intrigued as to why you would even consider me using a phone to do anything significant. Especially considering that i am sitting here, writing comments, about why i hate phones.
Two people can disagree about whether glass is better than metal or plastic. Two people cannot disagree on whether one camera can show detail that another camera cannot show.
On a product that has a feature for “convenience” there is a point where that convenience becomes more of a hassle, and then i or other consumers stop caring about it.
Hassle? The technical details of the cameras are completely transparent to the user. One one camera when you pinch to zoom it gets blurry. On the other it stays clear.
when did i ever say i do that with my phone?
This entire discussion is about phones! That a desktop can use more cores is irrelevant to whether a phone needs 8 cores. If you aren’t gaming on your phone, then why aren’t you complaining about the 8 cores and GPU that you also don’t use? The Lemmy.world android app certainly doesn’t need 8 cores.
So im intrigued as to why you would even consider me using a phone to do anything significant.
I used to have a compact digital camera and a DSLR. Every couple of years I’d buy a new compact digital because as they improved you could take better photos with them. Now my phone takes photos better than my old compact digital camera. I still use my DSLR for special events but my phone takes good enough photos that I don’t have to carry two cameras around. I have kids. I like to take photos of their events like track meets, orchestra concerts, hikes, and amusement parks. For orchestra and sports I bring a DSLR. I’m not bringing a DSLR to an amusement park. I also like taking photos of wildlife in my yard like hawks, deer, and even an eagle. Those things are spontaneous. By the time I went and got my DSLR with its giant zoom lens, the moment would have passed.
Two people cannot disagree on whether one camera can show detail that another camera cannot show.
two people can argue whether or not that matters, we might as well call every lossy compression format ever useless because it degrades the quality of the final video significantly.
Hassle? The technical details of the cameras are completely transparent to the user. One one camera when you pinch to zoom it gets blurry. On the other it stays clear.
im sure they have documentation on automatic camera switching, and other documentation on all the other “features” it involves. God forbid you use a third party app to interact with your camera. I’m buying a phone because of the computer, not because of the cameras, i just don’t need them, and yet now its YET another feature i have to contend with. One might say i should just ignore them, but alas i am stuck here, spending money on them, i am damn well getting the value out of my purchase, regardless of how useless it is.
This entire discussion is about phones!
yeah, doesn’t limit it to phones though. you provided an example as to why generic hardware would be beneficial for context. I expanded upon it, explaining why i didnt think it was a very good reason. My phone is 7 years old, and quite literally, cost nothing.
“The best camera you have is the one you have with you.”
I.E. using the camera that my phone has, when i need it, and just living with the fact that it’s not the best quality in the world. 3 more cameras might improve my photo slightly. I don’t really care though. Modern flagship phones will take “4k” photos. I really don’t understand why you would need much more. You can do a 2x digital zoom and still retain reasonable quality, assuming the original isn’t making up pixels. Which is very well might be.
Having photos of everything is cool and all, kids i will excuse from this due to societal reasons. But most things in life, that you can take a picture of, you probably shouldn’t. Sure it’s cool when a hawk lands in your yard, or you see a new bird that you haven’t before. You could pull out your phone, and take a picture or a video, or you could also just sit there, and watch it.
It’s always bothered me when people stop the entire group, to take a forced group photo because “look we’re having fun” when we could be having fun instead. It’s a buzzkill frankly. If i’m with my friends or family i want to interact with them and talk with them, because i like them. I don’t want to take pictures with them. Spontaneous photos i have less of a problem with, especially if its in the moment. They tell a much better story anyway, which is what mediocre phone cameras excel at.
I feel like since the invention of phone cameras, particularly good ones, people have just been photographing EVERYTHING, which does less good than if they just didn’t. Scroll through an average family photo roll, and see how many of those photos are actually worth telling a story over. Most of them have no story, because they were forced. Some of them have “an” story, because they’re tangentially related. And then a few are actually interesting.
I really just don’t think you need that many cameras. Wanna put two on there? Sure, do your box standard “phone camera” and then put a zoom camera. You need nothing more. Anything else is just a waste of time. If you REALLY insist on having more than 2, do a fish eye. By that point you’re hitting diminishing returns though. Also a point of contention for me, why does the base model iphone 15 have 2 (might be 3 i have no clue) cameras, but then also have usb 2.0? This isn’t a cheap phone. It should just have usb 3.0.
expanding on the CPU GPU analogy you used prior, this is like owning a mini computer in the 70’s 80’s all of them were bespoke, they all did for all intents and purposes, basically the same thing. Some of them specialized slightly more than others (most specialization was done with third party hardware though) You just kinda pick one, and then use it. It’s fine. Even though technically having multiple different ones would be ideal, nobody did that, unless they wanted to do more computing. Though in this case it’s kind of hard to “use more than one camera at a time” In fact it’s pretty heavily limited, i think on apple hardware, there is one app, that kind of lets you do it. That’s it.
we might as well call every lossy compression format ever useless
Lossy compression is a trade off between loss of quality and file size. You can objectively test whether one file is better quality than another at the same file size or whether one is smaller than the other at the same quality.
im sure they have documentation on automatic camera switching,
You can read technical websites to learn how it works just like you can read about multi threading or other hardware features of your phone.
But to the end user there is there is no feature to learn. It is the same pinch to zoom whether you have one camera or three. My technologically illiterate mother in law uses her iPhone to take pictures and has no idea her phone has more than one camera. Just like she has no idea her phone has more than one CPU.
you provided an example as to why generic hardware would be beneficial
I didn’t change to the context of PC’s or generic.
"Ranting about cameras you don’t use is like ranting about CPU cores you don’t use. I don’t game on my phone, where’s my phone without a GPU??? "
Do I have to preface every single sentence with “on a phone”? Am I now allowed to misinterpret every sentence that doesn’t contain the phrase “on a phone” as meaning you are talking about cars?
You can do a 2x digital zoom and still retain reasonable quality
15 years ago 100 million people a year bought digital cameras to get 3x-5x optical zoom (the typical range of consumer digital cameras). There is a huge difference with optical zoom and you still have digital zoom to get even more. The wide lens is needed when you can’t frame everything in the shot and can’t physically move farther back. Again consumer points and shoot digital cameras had that feature because they had the physical space to use a wide lens on a expanding mount to give the range. Now phone can match consumer digital cameras from 15 years ago but have to do it with a separate lens because of size constraints.
Why a wide lens? You want the Christmas dinner table shot of everyone and can’t move farther back in the room. You want the shot of the entire orchestra but can’t get out of your seat, walk 5 rows back and block the audience. People bought cameras with a wide lens and good zoom before smartphones.
You edit video. What made the video ? A camera without zoom or interchangeable lens? Of course not.
I feel like since the invention of phone cameras, particularly good ones, people have just been photographing EVERYTHING,
I already quoted with sources the 100 million cameras a year every year. Before that it was analog cameras. People have been taking garbage photos for as long as there have been consumer cameras. The boring carousel slide show of vacations was a staple comedy joke 40 years ago. At least now the photos aren’t also blurry.
If you REALLY insist on having more than 2, do a fish eye
Well there you go, 3 camera modules just like my Pixel ( not including the front). It can do it with only 3 because of the periscope lens (there was a consumer compact digital camera that did the same trick 15 years ago). But the periscope lens requires more physical space. On a smaller phone manufacturers use more lenses to cover the same zoom ranges. If phones could be as large as a camera with a long lens sticking out the back, all phones would need only one lens just like cameras from 15 years ago.
Phone manufacturers add lenses to equal the features of compact digital cameras from 15 years ago but in the form factor of a phone. People loved their digital cameras. Now phones can replace them.
Again, the switching between cameras isn’t something the user is aware of. It is completely seamless with not even an option on the UI to know that it is happening.
If they could save money by doing everything with one camera and lens, don’t you think they would?
People want better pictures. The only solution engineers could figure out was to put more camera modules. Why do you care how it’s done? One bump or ten, the phone is already thicker.
phone companies have been known to make stupid decisions before. Apple uses glass on the back of their phones, even though it breaks incredibly easy. Up until more recent models the back glass was incredibly aggressively bonded to the back chassis of the phone, making it basically impossible to replace.
If i had to guess, it’s the cheapest way, to get “more” features and “quality” out of a phone. Like a gimmick. I’m almost certain it’s possible to just put in a better camera sensor, they’ve been doing that on every model for decades. Chances are they just took the easy route, since it adds a unique feature, that has never been seen before, and makes it easily marketable. And besides, for people like me who barely use the camera, paying for upwards of 5 cameras, when i only use 2. More than likely 1, is completely useless to me. I’d be more inclined to pay for a single better camera, than multiple cameras i probably wont use.
Glass back is a subjective feature.
Digital cameras were a multi billion dollar business before smartphones existed. Over 100 million digital cameras were sold each and every year.
You are absolutely wrong. Look at the physical size of digital cameras. Lenses have physical limitations. Higher density sensors are diffraction limited. That is you can’t make the sensor pixel element smaller because it is smaller than the wavelength of light. Cameras don’t look like this https://spuelbeck.net/canon-ef-300mm-f28/ just for fun. It’s physically necessary for the lens to be that large.
It takes a better picture. Calling a better picture a gimmick is like calling a faster CPU a gimmick. Some people want better photos.
Ranting about cameras you don’t use is like ranting about CPU cores you don’t use. I don’t game on my phone, where’s my phone without a GPU??? Stupid GPU gimmick.
idk i think a design choice is a pretty objective feature. Preference and liking it? Pretty subjective, sure. That still doesn’t change that.
it might take a better picture, it depends on how you define better. More versatile camera? Sure. Better? Eh, idk. And besides, pretty much every phone ever these days has some sort of built it AI processing done on the photos, because apparently thats a thing now. Even then it doesn’t stop you from taking a worse photo, because you literally have different cameras, for different things, you can just straight up use the wrong camera now. As well as other cool feature like visual artifacting due to camera switching, because it turns out when you put two cameras in two different places, they’re in two different places, and can’t exactly behave in an interchangeable manner.
I guess you could “fix” those issues in software, but thats another story entirely.
idk people have different opinions for gimmicks apparently. I just think having more than one camera is stupid, i’d rather have one decent camera, and a better/cheaper phone otherwise. I barely use it’s camera as is.
it’s a little fundamentally different to having a lot of cpu cores, or a gpu. Or a faster cpu because for some reason you also threw that in there. A faster cpu is generally advantageous as pretty much every piece of software has some amount of sequential code base in it. The only place it wouldn’t make sense is somewhere you quite literally cannot use that processing power. Like a router. Those run on such light hardware you would be wasting entire cycles on the cpu before it can even start another process.
More cpu cores is also generally advantageous, especially in the modern era where people play games, and games like more cores now, or if you edit video, like i do, more cores is objectively more helpful, even if you dont use them 90% of the time. Or even if you just want more multitasking capability. A server for instance really likes cores because it can run a lot of different processes simultaneously. Some servers benefit from high single core freq for instance, i know mine does.
gpus are generally beneficial, i certainly wouldn’t buy a gaming phone to use as a phone for what i do, though apparently they have massive batteries so that would likely outweigh that con? Though phone hardware is another beef i have entirely, that’s a different story.
gpus are similarly useful, considering that they’re a general purpose computing tool, much like cpu, though for different calculations. As opposed to a 3x optical zoom lensed camera. Which is kind of neat ig, i barely take pictures with my phone though. I dont really know why i would want 4 other cameras. Just seems like a waste of money for me.
A choice of material to make a phone feel better is subjective. A better camera is capable of resolving details that another camera cannot. That’s objective. Whereas one person might like the feel of glass while another doesn’t. A lens that matches the distance where you need to resolve detail gives you a better image.
Using a tool wrong is completely irrelevant to whether one tool is capable of giving better results.
My phone from 3 years ago was fast enough. I’m not writing/compiling code on my phone.
You edit video on your phone? But you claimed you don’t care about the camera quality and barely even use it.
“, i barely take pictures with my phone though.”
a material choice preference is subjective, the manufacturer using a specific material over another one is an objective state of that product, though it’s also fair to argue that it was an objectively bad choice, on a product that is quite literally, known for breaking, all the time. Except now its TWICE as likely to break as it was before. On paper a better camera is objectively better. But on paper the users preference of what they want something to do is also objective. I don’t care that X product, can do Y feature if i am literally never going to touch it. Regardless of whether or not it is objectively better or worse, it is quite literally, an objective waste of time and money on my end.
This would be why they make actual cameras, that you can take actually bad photos with, but also allow you to take actually good photos with. On a product that has a feature for “convenience” there is a point where that convenience becomes more of a hassle, and then i or other consumers stop caring about it.
when did i ever say i do that with my phone? I’m writing these comments from a computer, as evidenced by the fact that i am on lemmy, the statistical likelihood that i am a computer enthusiast is significantly higher.
Remember the part where i mentioned my server? Yeah that’s a computer. You remember the other example i mentioned where faster cpu doesn’t make sense, a router? You wanna know whats equivalent to that? My phone. Also the part where i said “generally” that doesnt apply to everything.
And even then i don’t edit real footage, i edited mostly screen recorded footage. I have edited at least one video though. The video res is high enough, and the frame rate is decent. It looks fine. (that was on my shitbox android with one camera) If i wanted anything more than that, i would buy an actual camera, which would get me better image quality, and better workflows as well. Even then dankpods, a creator known for recording on an iphone, has recently gotten completely fed up with using an iphone to record (it’s almost like they’re not very good at what they’re trying to be)
that statement also implies you dont use that phone anymore, fun fact, my phone is uh. 7 years old now. It’s not particularly fast, which is the fault of android. But it does exist, and mostly works (again the fault of android).
little fun fact, i have more accidental screenshots taken than actual real photos taken on my phone in the last 6 months. I literally don’t use the camera LOL.
presumably by the fact that you mentioned code writing, you are also not a chronic phone user, like myself. So im intrigued as to why you would even consider me using a phone to do anything significant. Especially considering that i am sitting here, writing comments, about why i hate phones.
Two people can disagree about whether glass is better than metal or plastic. Two people cannot disagree on whether one camera can show detail that another camera cannot show.
Hassle? The technical details of the cameras are completely transparent to the user. One one camera when you pinch to zoom it gets blurry. On the other it stays clear.
This entire discussion is about phones! That a desktop can use more cores is irrelevant to whether a phone needs 8 cores. If you aren’t gaming on your phone, then why aren’t you complaining about the 8 cores and GPU that you also don’t use? The Lemmy.world android app certainly doesn’t need 8 cores.
“The best camera you have is the one you have with you.” https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/the-best-camera-is-the-one-thats-with-you/
I used to have a compact digital camera and a DSLR. Every couple of years I’d buy a new compact digital because as they improved you could take better photos with them. Now my phone takes photos better than my old compact digital camera. I still use my DSLR for special events but my phone takes good enough photos that I don’t have to carry two cameras around. I have kids. I like to take photos of their events like track meets, orchestra concerts, hikes, and amusement parks. For orchestra and sports I bring a DSLR. I’m not bringing a DSLR to an amusement park. I also like taking photos of wildlife in my yard like hawks, deer, and even an eagle. Those things are spontaneous. By the time I went and got my DSLR with its giant zoom lens, the moment would have passed.
two people can argue whether or not that matters, we might as well call every lossy compression format ever useless because it degrades the quality of the final video significantly.
im sure they have documentation on automatic camera switching, and other documentation on all the other “features” it involves. God forbid you use a third party app to interact with your camera. I’m buying a phone because of the computer, not because of the cameras, i just don’t need them, and yet now its YET another feature i have to contend with. One might say i should just ignore them, but alas i am stuck here, spending money on them, i am damn well getting the value out of my purchase, regardless of how useless it is.
yeah, doesn’t limit it to phones though. you provided an example as to why generic hardware would be beneficial for context. I expanded upon it, explaining why i didnt think it was a very good reason. My phone is 7 years old, and quite literally, cost nothing.
I.E. using the camera that my phone has, when i need it, and just living with the fact that it’s not the best quality in the world. 3 more cameras might improve my photo slightly. I don’t really care though. Modern flagship phones will take “4k” photos. I really don’t understand why you would need much more. You can do a 2x digital zoom and still retain reasonable quality, assuming the original isn’t making up pixels. Which is very well might be.
Having photos of everything is cool and all, kids i will excuse from this due to societal reasons. But most things in life, that you can take a picture of, you probably shouldn’t. Sure it’s cool when a hawk lands in your yard, or you see a new bird that you haven’t before. You could pull out your phone, and take a picture or a video, or you could also just sit there, and watch it.
It’s always bothered me when people stop the entire group, to take a forced group photo because “look we’re having fun” when we could be having fun instead. It’s a buzzkill frankly. If i’m with my friends or family i want to interact with them and talk with them, because i like them. I don’t want to take pictures with them. Spontaneous photos i have less of a problem with, especially if its in the moment. They tell a much better story anyway, which is what mediocre phone cameras excel at.
I feel like since the invention of phone cameras, particularly good ones, people have just been photographing EVERYTHING, which does less good than if they just didn’t. Scroll through an average family photo roll, and see how many of those photos are actually worth telling a story over. Most of them have no story, because they were forced. Some of them have “an” story, because they’re tangentially related. And then a few are actually interesting.
I really just don’t think you need that many cameras. Wanna put two on there? Sure, do your box standard “phone camera” and then put a zoom camera. You need nothing more. Anything else is just a waste of time. If you REALLY insist on having more than 2, do a fish eye. By that point you’re hitting diminishing returns though. Also a point of contention for me, why does the base model iphone 15 have 2 (might be 3 i have no clue) cameras, but then also have usb 2.0? This isn’t a cheap phone. It should just have usb 3.0.
expanding on the CPU GPU analogy you used prior, this is like owning a mini computer in the 70’s 80’s all of them were bespoke, they all did for all intents and purposes, basically the same thing. Some of them specialized slightly more than others (most specialization was done with third party hardware though) You just kinda pick one, and then use it. It’s fine. Even though technically having multiple different ones would be ideal, nobody did that, unless they wanted to do more computing. Though in this case it’s kind of hard to “use more than one camera at a time” In fact it’s pretty heavily limited, i think on apple hardware, there is one app, that kind of lets you do it. That’s it.
Lossy compression is a trade off between loss of quality and file size. You can objectively test whether one file is better quality than another at the same file size or whether one is smaller than the other at the same quality.
You can read technical websites to learn how it works just like you can read about multi threading or other hardware features of your phone.
But to the end user there is there is no feature to learn. It is the same pinch to zoom whether you have one camera or three. My technologically illiterate mother in law uses her iPhone to take pictures and has no idea her phone has more than one camera. Just like she has no idea her phone has more than one CPU.
I didn’t change to the context of PC’s or generic.
"Ranting about cameras you don’t use is like ranting about CPU cores you don’t use. I don’t game on my phone, where’s my phone without a GPU??? "
Do I have to preface every single sentence with “on a phone”? Am I now allowed to misinterpret every sentence that doesn’t contain the phrase “on a phone” as meaning you are talking about cars?
15 years ago 100 million people a year bought digital cameras to get 3x-5x optical zoom (the typical range of consumer digital cameras). There is a huge difference with optical zoom and you still have digital zoom to get even more. The wide lens is needed when you can’t frame everything in the shot and can’t physically move farther back. Again consumer points and shoot digital cameras had that feature because they had the physical space to use a wide lens on a expanding mount to give the range. Now phone can match consumer digital cameras from 15 years ago but have to do it with a separate lens because of size constraints.
Why a wide lens? You want the Christmas dinner table shot of everyone and can’t move farther back in the room. You want the shot of the entire orchestra but can’t get out of your seat, walk 5 rows back and block the audience. People bought cameras with a wide lens and good zoom before smartphones.
You edit video. What made the video ? A camera without zoom or interchangeable lens? Of course not.
I already quoted with sources the 100 million cameras a year every year. Before that it was analog cameras. People have been taking garbage photos for as long as there have been consumer cameras. The boring carousel slide show of vacations was a staple comedy joke 40 years ago. At least now the photos aren’t also blurry.
Well there you go, 3 camera modules just like my Pixel ( not including the front). It can do it with only 3 because of the periscope lens (there was a consumer compact digital camera that did the same trick 15 years ago). But the periscope lens requires more physical space. On a smaller phone manufacturers use more lenses to cover the same zoom ranges. If phones could be as large as a camera with a long lens sticking out the back, all phones would need only one lens just like cameras from 15 years ago.
Phone manufacturers add lenses to equal the features of compact digital cameras from 15 years ago but in the form factor of a phone. People loved their digital cameras. Now phones can replace them.
Again, the switching between cameras isn’t something the user is aware of. It is completely seamless with not even an option on the UI to know that it is happening.