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The most disappointing thing with Apples multitude of lenses proliferating the back of their phones is that the zoom lens is the premium only while all phones carry the ultrawide lens option.
Who uses the ultrawide lenses often? It's nice for taking pictures of your house for sale or a group of people at a restaurant, but other than that, how often do you use it?
The zoom lens on the other hand... I ALWAYS want to zoom in on my iphone more, especially for most landscape / nature shots. It seems only natural, given that the 'standard' lens is already zoomed out from a 1:1 ratio.
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The problem is that people like their phone to be thin and flat. They do a minor digital zoom, but a real optical zoom would require a longer lens, that would stick out and ruin the nice flat shape. Also, a real zoom of significant power requires a tripod to keep it steady enough for a clear shot.
Well, given the space available, it's almost certainly a "digital zoom" not an actual optical zoom. The more you "zoom in" digitally, the less resolution you have. Consider that my reasonable quality point and shoot digital camera has a lens that's about 1" diameter and 2" long (it retracts when the camera's shut down) - and it doesn't give the quality of photos of a 35mm film camera with a 180 mm lens that's 3" in diameter and 5" long.
Now consider scaling that down to the space available in a phone - maybe 1/4" of length from tip of lens to photocell, and maybe 1/2" max available diameter - and you can see that digitally zooming in ('cause you're not going to be extending the lens) is going to eat up photo quality fast.
The most disappointing thing with Apples multitude of lenses proliferating the back of their phones is that the zoom lens is the premium only while all phones carry the ultrawide lens option.
Who uses the ultrawide lenses often? It's nice for taking pictures of your house for sale or a group of people at a restaurant, but other than that, how often do you use it?
The zoom lens on the other hand... I ALWAYS want to zoom in on my iphone more, especially for most landscape / nature shots. It seems only natural, given that the 'standard' lens is already zoomed out from a 1:1 ratio.
As a "paparazzi", I use a zoom all the time. A Canon Rebel 70-210, I think (given the pandemic, it hasn't been used in months). I swing up like a sniper, snap my picture, and swing down.
The thing with a cell phone is that there really is no surprise picture taking, so why bother with a zoom?
Can't say what the papparazzi do but snipers DO NOT swing up and down. Movement attracts the human eye, and the faster the movement the more the attraction. They move VERY SLOWLY to the location and can spend hours or longer with the rifle aimed and ready to fire at the exact moment!
Then again a sniper is going to kill someone, a papparazzi is just going to invade someone's privacy. A sniper, if seen will most likely be shot at, a papparazzi if seen will just have the bird flipped at them, some cuss words thrown their way, and maybe a camera ripped from their hands and shoved where the sun does not shine. Regardless, one will most likely walk away if seen, the other will be left or carried away.
As for the zoom on an iphone? Can't answer since I have never owned an iphone; however, if you include the larger number of phones on the market....android, I guess since most photos taken today are from a cell phone, the zoom can be important for other things than taking photos of people. There are some cases where a tele would be more advantageous than a wide or normal lens.
Even though I have a few Nikon DSLR (750/850) some Nikon pro lenses; most of my pictures anymore are from my 4XL and are just pictures.
But for the real reason....write Apple and ask them; they produced the item and I would guess market research keeps them informed of what people want on their product.
The problem is that people like their phone to be thin and flat. They do a minor digital zoom, but a real optical zoom would require a longer lens, that would stick out and ruin the nice flat shape. Also, a real zoom of significant power requires a tripod to keep it steady enough for a clear shot.
Correct, which is why they probably can't go much higher than the current lens mix on the iPhone 12 Pro of Zoom, Wide, and Ultrawide and still fit it on the back of an ultra compact thin phone. Digital zoom sucks the quality out of a picture, I try never to 'Zoom' on my phone if at all possible.
My question is with the lenses that they already have, why did they choose the wide and ultra wide for base models instead of wide and zoom and make ultra wide, the more niche lens, the add on feature.
I know a DSLR camera is just better, especially if you want the picture to be larger than phone screen size, but my problem is many of my best shots come from random moments, where you always have a phone, but you wouldn't always have a larger camera.
Metaphorically speaking......and one should remember that photography is an art.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil P
..........I know a DSLR camera is just better, especially if you want the picture to be larger than phone screen size, but my problem is many of my best shots come from random moments, where you always have a phone, but you wouldn't always have a larger camera.
That reminds me of an episode of "Too Close for Comfort" where Hamilton Camp as Arthur Wainwright does a magnificent wild animal capture and then asks Muriel (Nancy Dussault) if she got it on film. She says she didn't have her camera and he is very disappointed, pointing out to her that as a photo journalist, she must have her camera all the time, she must sleep with her camera.
My question is with the lenses that they already have, why did they choose the wide and ultra wide for base models instead of wide and zoom and make ultra wide, the more niche lens, the add on feature.
Perhaps it is to entice you to buy the more expensive phone.
In case that you don't understand the reason for three camera lenses in the iPhone. This is an older article, but the reasons for using different lenses are explained in detail. Keep in mind the aperture of each lens, since wide apertures allow for the lens to gather more light than narrow apertures. https://www.bustle.com/p/why-are-the...enses-18753256
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