Multiple phone camera lenses explained

Telephoto, Ultrawide, Portrait Mode - dual (or triple, or quad) lensed cameras and the features they bring are the new frontier for photography on smartphones. We explain what to look for, and why multiple lens cameras are worth the cost.

I dare you to go to a tech website and not find on the front page an article about the “next best new thing” or the “science fiction dreams made reality”. Tech, and phones in particular, aren’t just gimmicky headlines and a flash-in-the-pan feature set, as much as that may seem the case. Some of the most compelling features are the ones that evolve over time and just become a part of your everyday when you aren’t paying attention. Enter, phone camera lenses – effectively the new point-and-shoot due to consistent lens upgrades that have persisted through a bunch of “next best new thing” splashy features. 

Pop-cameras and slide cases are both examples of smartphone manufacturer’s tinkering with clever solutions for bigger screens, or better build quality. If anything has endured from the past few years of smartphone innovation is the dual (or sometimes triple and quad) camera - the trend which added an unmistakable square housing to the rear of this year’s major smartphone releases.

Single lens smartphone cameras had a simple job, to put out good looking photos, but advances in smartphone camera lens technology now allow manufacturers to include incredible new features. In this article, we’re going to discuss the differences between specialised camera lenses, how phone camera lenses actually work, and try to decide what the best camera lens for phones is.

Outside of the increasing quality of primary phone cameras year-over-year, photography engineers at phone manufactures also need to decide what specialised lenses are going to be including alongside that main shooter. Not every smartphone can have every lens, and manufacturers are making an important choice every time they decide what kind of lens to include on a phone - it sends a message about the kind of phone they’re trying to make, and the kind of pictures they think you’ll want to take.

In the past few years, you’ve probably noticed a marked improvement in the photos of your friends on social media - settings like portrait mode uses a phone’s secondary sensor to create a depth of field effect; blurring the background whilst maintaining sharpness of the subject. Telephoto lenses allow for increased optical zoom for better detail over a longer distance. Ultra-wide lenses are physically wider, with a 120-degree field of view; allowing them to fit more into a frame without having to change where the camera is positioned, both of which help account for the average person on the street taking generally better looking photos on their phone.

When Google announced that their 2018 flagship phone, the Pixel 3, would still feature a singular rear camera in a year filled with dual-camera smartphones, it seemed as though they were reasserting their confidence in their camera software’s ability to turn out incredible photos. The Pixel line upended smartphone photography with it’s focus on software wizardry that somehow matched images produced by dual-camera setups like the iPhone camera lens.

The Google Pixel 4 finally saw Google make the jump to dual rear cameras, including a telephoto lens. From Google’s perspective, while something like an ultra-wide lens is fun, including a telephoto is ultimately more useful. Up until the Pixel 3, Google proudly (and correctly) touted that they could play with the best in phone photography via their special unification of artificial intelligence, software, and a single camera lens.

The Pixel 3 was perhaps the best example of this ‘software-first’ approach, which delivered features such as Night Sight and Top Shot. Smartphone cameras before the Pixel 3 have also played with this idea via apps and post-processing; such as apps like AfterFocus which add fake background blur to an image. Even with all of Google’s computational prowess, software and a single lens are only capable of so much.

With all their extra lenses working in tandem, smartphone cameras are engaged in a complex dance of data sharing in order to determine depth, light, focus, colour and more; when smartphones create a detailed final photo by knitting together multiple images, something like a depth sensor will contribute improved depth data to that image too. As the limits of what a single camera get closer and closer, this kind of data-knitting-multi-image-mish-mash is what smartphone cameras have begun doing; using software to improve and expand the capabilities of hardware.

This brings us to the age-old question. As a wise person once said; “the best camera is the one you have with you” (which seems to be the philosophy underpinning the whole success of smartphone cameras). However, when we’re talking about the specific abilities of multiple lenses, ultimately the answer is going to be linked to what you want to achieve. A lot happens in life, at all different distances, lighting conditions and speeds. Going for a hike in some Scandinavian fjord? An ultra-wide will probably be your best bet for taking in the scale of an incredible nature scene. Snapping from the sidelines during the Champions League or Premier League? Get the details you need with a telephoto zoom.

Quad cameras are now part of many new flagship phone releases. We first saw the emergence of the quad camera back in 2018, with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy A9. 

For quad cameras, as the latest addition, we’ll talk specifically about the lenses that commonly form a quad array set up, we’ll also explain how these lenses can be used to create images worthy of publication on your social media feed. Last off, we’ll offer our predictions for the future of smart phone photography.

While dual and tri lens cameras offered users more versatility in the way they compose their shots, the addition of another lens adds s another opportunity for users to show off their creative flair.

Quad cameras are comprised of a unique set of four lenses, each which lend themselves to creating unique effects and making the most of any shooting scenario.

Depending on the brand, the combination of unique lens used can differ. There’s no set-in stone formula for what makes the perfect quad lens camera, but if you’re into a certain style of shooting, you’ll want to pay close attention to the specs of your camera, so you can always produce the perfect shot no matter the shooting conditions.

Image quality is often denoted by the number of megapixels, which simply is the resolution of your image. It’s of particular importance if you plan on enlarging images or cropping images and you don’t want to sacrifice the quality of the shot. When producing large scale prints, cameras with a lower megapixel count are more likely to product pixelated images.

The number and namely the size of the pixels within your sensor can drastically alter the quality of your shot. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has one of the highest and largest image sensor pixels counts at 108 million 0.8μm pixels (μm is the measurement used to calculate pixel count).  A large sensor combined with a higher density of larger pixels alleviate issues such as digital noise on your shots. The size of the sensor is measured in fractions of an inch. Look out for this number on your phones spec sheet - 1/1.33-inch, when determining the size of your camera’s sensor. 

Primary Sensor 

All quad lens cameras are composed of a primary sensor. Sensors work by drawing in light from your surroundings. The larger the sensor, the more light that can be drawn in from your surroundings. Not only do bigger sensors help with shooting in low light conditions but have an overall impact on the overall quality of the image. Primary cameras are often noted as “wide,” meaning they have a focal length closer 24mm, whilst shorter than an ultra-wide-angle lens, you can still fit more in the frame. 

Depth Sensors explained 

Depth sensors work in tandem with your primary lenses and are often attributed to the fan favourite classic bokeh style image effect, creating an image with a shallower depth of field, focusing solely on the subject you’re shooting and blurring out the background. Its application is seen mostly in portrait photography. 

Ultra-wide angle lens explained 

A wide-angle lens was the first lens to be included in the tri-lens setup. Quite simply, an ultra-wide-angle lens allows you to fit more of your subject and their surroundings in the frame. A wide or ultra-wide angled lens has a shorter focal length; lenses measuring at 24mm fall within the range of what’s considered to be ultra-wide angle lens. High end phones like the iPhone 12 include a 13mm equivalent focal length. With such a short focal length, you can capture a 120-degree view of the scene. 

Advantages of an ultra-wide angle lens 

What’s the benefit? As we discussed earlier on, wide-angled lenses allow you to capture whole scenes that you’d otherwise not be able to fit with a lens of a higher focal length. They’re particularly suited to demonstrating the size of an object or landscape at a distance. Yet it’s smart to keep in mind the closer you are to the subject, the larger they’ll appear.

Telephoto lens

Once reliant on digital zoom, the addition of a telephoto lens introduces to optical zoom to your smart phone. A telephoto lens brings objects closer that would otherwise have to been photographed from a far. Unlike wide angle lens, the longer the focal length, the further away an image can be shot, giving the impression that you’re closer to the image than you really are. For example, the Google Pixel 4 has a 50m telephoto lens with 2 x optical zoom. The more recently released Note20 Ultra boasts 5x optical zoom.

Quad cameras setups have steadily made their way to mid-range devices like the A71 5G and even the affordable Samsung A21S. Although a handset might boast a quad camera array, there’s a lot of  variation between the quality of each camera setup. There are several things to look out for:

• Megapixel count isn’t the be all and end all. The size of the sensor and its pixel count contribute to the quality of your shot, especially when shooting in low light. 
• There’s also aperture, the opening of the lens which allow more or less light into your image sensor. Unlike detachable lenses, smart phone lenses normally have a fixed aperture. 
• Another feature to look out for is Optical image stabilisation (OIS). As the name suggests, OIS works to stabilise an image that might otherwise me subject to motion blur caused by the movement of your handsets. The Oppo Find X2 Pro 5G is just one example of a phone with this awesome feature.

The trend doesn’t seem to be slowing and with the demand from creators to produce high quality publishable content, there’s no doubt that we’ll see further enhancements in the near future. Are we edging closer to DSLR territory? Maybe, but not quite. Smart phones still have their limitations. Without comprising on size, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a smart phone that matches full capability of a mid-high range DSLR. 

The one thing we can tell you is this: the more lenses, the merrier. As smartphones’ primary shooters get more and more backup from secondary lenses, images have the chance to become sharper and more detailed. No matter what camera you end up choosing, it’s lucky that you’ll be able to take advantage of our network coverage in more places in Australia than ever before to keep all your photos backed up.

Now that you know your camera lenses, get to know our range of phones and find the perfect fit today.