This year has been revolutionary for the phone industry. There’s all the craze about 5G phones, such as Samsung’s new Galaxy S10 5G. Support for 5G should be more widely available in 2020. Foldable phones, such as the new Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X, made headlines, but that too will require a couple years to develop seriously if it wants to take off with the masses.
One thing we will see for certain are a lot of phones with triple-rear cameras. This trend has been pointed to by the launch of the Galaxy S10, LG G8 and Xiaomi Mi 9, along with numerous rumors about the next iPhone. Even though Apple, Samsung and others aren’t the first to add three cameras to the back of a phone, the fact that some of most the popular phone-makers are embracing them, or plan to, will surely ensure widespread use.
And it might not stop at three. The Galaxy S10 5G will have four rear cameras, although one is a 3D depth-sensing camera for better portrait photos and AR. There are rumors that the upcoming Huawei P30 Pro will also have four on the back. And don’t forget HMD launched the Nokia 9 PureView that has five rear cameras, while the camera company Light showed a phone prototype with ninerear cameras. But let’s just focus on three for now.
It was just last year when I noticed that phone-makers were adding cameras to phones the way companies add blades to shaving razors, and at this point you may be wondering why this is happening in the first place.
There are several benefits to having three cameras on the back. The primary reason is the ability to switch between different focal lengths quickly. It is similar to a three-lens turret on an old Bolex camera that allowed you to change lenses simply by rotating the turret.
More cameras mean a wider zoom range. The Google Pixel 3 however has a lonely single rear camera on its back and proves that more cameras don’t necessarily correlate to a better picture.