Dual Camera - How does it work?

 A new trend has officially started in the smartphone world, and it’s that of the dual camera. Even if the general idea of using two sensors to take one photo is shared between these devices, this is as far as similarities go, as each phone maker has a slightly different opinion regarding the way this tech should work.

 Hybrid Solution To Optical Zoom

 A small yet important problem in smartphones: the lack of optical zoom. The iPhone 7 Plus’ camera solves this in a rather inelegant, but still ingenious way: the second camera on its back uses a different, permanently zoomed in telephoto lens, with the device switching between them whenever necessary. It works wonders, in large part thanks to Apple’s software, which makes the transitions as unobtrusive as possible.

Potrait Mode  

A side effect of this approach is that the two rear cameras also have different focal lengths. Thus utilizing that side effect in Portrait mode to its advantage the image from the two cameras is combined into one, with the person or object in the foreground being the only thing in focus and background being blurred out it gives a depth effect to the photo. Even though the Final picture seems a bit artificial there is a lot more area of improvement to this feature in the upcoming feature. 

Low Light Photographs 

This idea, involves of two separate sensors, but the difference here is that one of them shoots exclusively in monochrome. This means that the camera setup is more sensitive to light, and can therefore take better photos in low-light conditions.

A bonus of this approach is that users can take monochrome pictures of much higher quality than color ones. This idea is implemented by several of Huawei’s flagships but is soon expected to be followed by other flagship brands also.   

To wrap up Dual camera is quite the breakthrough innovation in the smartphone industry.  Even though the Technology/Idea of using 2 cameras has been around for a long time and there is yet a lot more to come.