It is now a common scenario in all flagship and mid-range smartphones to sport a dual camera setup. But are the users really benefitted by this? Are the brands making a fool of us? Let’s find out.
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But before going into this topic, let’s see the different types of dual camera setups used in the phones:
- The one main camera accompanying another monochromatic camera setup. Here the other camera (monochromatic) shoots pictures in black and white. This camera mainly helps in providing extra detail to the image. ( Found in phones like Coolpad Cool 1, Moto G5s)
- The one main camera accompanying a telescopic or a wide angle camera. The other camera helps in taking zoomed shots or wide angle shots. (Found in phones like iPhone 7 plus, Mi A1)
The picture below shows the camera setup in iPhone 7 plus. Notice the difference in their angle of view and focal length.
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But are these cameras doing their job?
- Their first job is to take detailed images. And they are doing their job quite decently. For the first setup (the monochromatic one) the main camera takes a high quality image and the other camera (which is usually a low end camera) takes a low quality image and these two images combine to form a detailed image.
HQ Image + LQ Image =Detailed image.
But the same can be done with a single lens camera using the HDR mode or the High Dynamic Range imaging. This mode takes multiple high quality photos and merges them to form a single very highly detailed photo.
HQ Image + HQ Image= Very HQ Image.
Here the dual camera setup feels unnecessary. - The second job is to create a depth of field effect in images or Portrait mode. The second setup (the one with a telescopic or wide angle camera) is actually a working setup as there are two cameras with different focal lengths. But in the monochromatic setup, both the cameras have the same focal length so the depth of field effect is actually software generated. Phones like iPhone 7 plus, One Plus 5 are successful in providing a depth of field effect. But dual camera here is used to compensate for a better sensor. A good example is the Google Pixel 2. You all must have heard about the camera smartphone Light. It has 10 cameras (Yes! 10) and all these sensors take a separate photograph and combine them to form a compound image, but still it cannot produce as good images as a decent DSLR.
This is the Light Camera
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Overall, the dual camera setup may be used by those who cannot afford a DSLR and are keen to use the depth of field effect. But for using that you must buy a high end flagship smartphone (for optimum results) and if someone could afford that, they could surely offord a DSLR.
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