Dual cameras in smartphones: Everything you need to know

Posted by freemexy on August 5th, 2019

If you look around the back of a phone, you’ll see a tiny camera lens. In a smartphone, the camera module is quite tiny, owing to the fact that the phone itself has to be slim. Inside this tiny module, they have to fit in multiple lens elements, an image sensor and sometimes even tiny motors for optical image stabilization. For dual, you’ll see two lenses, placed side by side horizontally or vertically. This means the device will have two complete, independent camera modules. Typically, one of them is the primary lens that does all the major lifting while the secondary lens works on capturing additional light, increasing the field of view or helps with a nice background blur.

Not really, dual cameras were first introduced in the HTC Evo 3D smartphone way back in 2011. At the time, the dual camera was used to capture 3D images to work with the 3D screen of the HTC. Post that, manufacturers kept experimenting with the tech, but it never really took off. That is, until 2014, when the HTC one M8 arrived with its Duo camera setup and the impressive depth of field effect. In 2016, dual cameras have evolved to deliver excellent results — effectively overcoming space limitations in modern phones.

Depending on the type of secondary camera used, a dual camera can help you get a sharper image with more details, enable an ultra-wide angle mode or simply help you take photos with a shallow depth of field to make the subject stand out. At times, the dual camera setup can also help you add 1x or 2x optical zoom to the phone (we’re seeing this on Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus and Asus’ Zenfone 3 Zoom).

Not necessarily. While the dual camera system does offer excellent results, several other factors such as sensor size, pixel size, aperture and even post processing plays a big role in the result.

Smartphones like Samsung’s Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, Google Pixel, OnePlus 3, LG G5, HTC 10 and few others will give you better results in low-light and better detail compared to many dual camera phone. The only dual camera smartphones that can match these flagships are the iPhone 7 Plus and Huawei P9.

What about the front camera? Why can’t there be dual cameras in front too?

In 2015, Lenovo introduced a dual front camera in the Vibe S1 — it had a primary 8MP front camera and second 2MP front camera to capture better selfies. Vivo is the latest brand to launch a smartphone with dual front camera in the Vivo V5 plus. It has a 20MP + 8MP front camera and a dedicated Bokeh mode for the user to adjust the aperture as per preference for a better depth of field effect. https://www.ttspy.com/live-phone-screening-for-parental-control.html