These are the days of smartphones with smart cameras. Everyone you see around in a busy place is whether chatting, browsing or taking photos with their smart devices.
When the smartphones came out first the usual standard was one phone one back camera. Then it got a front face camera for selfie lovers.
After that, there came two back end cameras for depth analyzing. And now this year in 2019 the battle is how much lenses one can put into one smart device.
Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, iPhone all have 2 cameras on board. This became a normal thing in 2018.
Then there are companies like Huawei and Samsung going to introduce 3 back cameras for the general audiences. In the meantime, Nokia came up with a step ahead with 5 cameras at the back.
Nokia 9 PureView ‘Olympic’ Penta-Lens Camera
Most of you already know that Pureview is the iconic camera lens technology that Nokia get back from Microsoft after their deal is off.
This was a rumored phone since 2017, but HMD Global wasn’t ready to release the phone with some camera lens tech difficulties.
In MWC 2019 HMD Global unveiled the Penta lense phone and to our utter surprise, we saw that these lenses actually work.
The PureView technology is working in collaboration with Nokia to get the mobile camera to a different level.
What users can experience is they can take a wide lens digital camera taste with this Nokia 9 PureView. Even after zooming at large you won’t see the image gets blurry. They have been working on this project for 5 years now.
If you want to learn more about the PureView project please check here.
The Nokia 9 PureView has 6GB of RAM with 128GB onboard storage and Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. Surely it performs well and user experiences are great.
What signifies the phone is the PureView technology with ZEISS optic. The front has a 24-megapixel camera and the back has 5 cameras in a pentagon shape. Which no other phone currently have tried yet.
It’s loaded with Android one (Version 9) which is a great thing.
Now I am passing the judgment to you whereas this is a good phone or a Great Phone. Just wanted to highlight the camera of the phone.
Huawei’s P20 Pro
Next one I want to mention is the Huawei’s P20 Pro.
It’s a decent phone with a fresh outlook than any other in the market. The glass back with a reflective color job that can change the color tone depending on the light.
But, we are interested in its triple camera system. You can see it clearly that after the first two cameras they have added a third one. Two in a pair and third one is just below the pair.
The P20 has two cameras, while the pro has an extra one. So, it is obvious that there will be a design flaw. I just don’t know why they couldn’t integrate them in the same pill shaped module. Why did you need to put a camera isolated from the two?
Although, the company has made a great improvement in manual photography. In a handheld device, you can select manual exposure time and the handshaking won’t blur the image.
The built-in AI for the camera can identify the object outline and recognize the object to provide a greater view up to 5x zoom.
Also, they have made the Ai beautifully to recognize food and the type of it when you are doing food photography. Great for your Instagram photos.
The front camera is 24 megapixel and uses light fusion. It might not be comparable to the iPhone X in complexity but you can unlock the phone via front camera.
Samsung Galaxy A7
Samsung generally has a very good quality camera in their high priced mobile phones. Although the Galaxy A7 price is less than three hundred dollars and it has built 128 Gigabyte storage onboard.
The Main camera is 24 Megapixel and used for normal shooting. The second camera is a wide angle lens (8 megapixels). And the third one is for depth measurement.
So ultimately they do not have any special features, but like as the other trio cameras available in the market.
The other notable phones with three cameras are Oppo R17 Pro Huawei Honor Magic 2.
Samsung Galaxy A9 has 4 cameras and have stunningly beautiful image output.
As you can see I haven’t mentioned the iPhone in our discussion. iPhone is always great in delivering good cameras. So, let’s forget about that for a moment.
The Future of Mobile Camera
My main discussion today is how the smartphones are evolving and companies are fighting over one another to provide the general consumer with a better camera.
DSLR cameras are getting obsolete for more people day by day. People are getting more and more creative with their mobile camera.
In a recent study, it has been shown that the DSLR camera selling has declined in the year from 2012 to 2017. Many stat on the web has predicted that DSLR cameras are going to extinct at some point due to mobile photography.
Mirrorless cameras are the future.
The standard for getting photos with your mobile phone is increasing every day. You can now easily replace the mighty powerful DSLR with a small pocketable mobile phone.
Travel photography is getting easier, isn’t it? Here are some powerful tips about how you can take super quality photos with your mobile phone.
AI is on the play
Companies are playing with their version of artificial intelligence for mobile photography. Although it is obvious that the Ai used in the mobile camera software is pretty basic and they can do only a few tweaks in color, brightness etc.
Like identifying smiley faces, foods, moving objects etc.
The war was always on. iPhone to Android everyone is trying to train their program their level best for photography.
There are several factors that matter in photography like the sensor size, crop matter and depth of field.
While a DSLR is amazing to set up things manually and you have a huge area of customizing the live view, mobile camera lenses are not up to the task.
Recently mobile manufacturers are producing mobiles with more lenses and cameras to get that feeling of a DSLR camera. One amazing thing about mobile photography is you can capture a close shot and a wide view instantly.
Again, when it comes to low light photography, the mobile cameras used to fail completely. But, look at recent years development. The iPhone and Oneplus have improved low light photography to a certain level.
Mobile camera sensors are getting larger and they are added with extra cameras just for depth analyzing. With the combination of AI the future might look bright for mobile photography.
Technology comes and goes. More advanced tech always thrives the market. On that scenario, we are not sure how much longer the smartphones will be in the market, but it is obvious that the camera war is still on.
