The Huawei P9 back in the year 2016 made use of Leica branded dual cameras to the rear. In this scenario one of the lens was a regular RGB sensor and the other lens was a monochrome sensor. The monochrome sensor was used to add more detail in the final image captured and it also helped in capturing pure black and white images. Along with the P9 came the LG G5 which also boasted dual cameras however this time the secondary lens was used as a wide angle lens which provided a 135° field of view. Well!! Here we see two different brands with two different utility of dual cameras which altogether served different purposes. The earliest android devices to make use of dual cameras were the HTC EVO 3D and the LG OPTIMUS 3D although way back in 2007 Samsung announced the SCH-B710 which was focussed on 3D like the former devices although we no longer see such 3D focussed smartphones these days.
From the year 2017 we have been seeing dual cameras even in the budget segment. Almost every other brand has started incorporating it and they do serve various purposes some of which are functional whereas some others are just present to follow the trend (i.e fake). Let's take a look at some of the most common utility of dual cameras and the brands that make use of them.
1. RGB + monochrome -
This combination is widely used by Huawei and the P9 was their first device that boasted it. The RGB sensor captures the regular data whereas the monochrome sensor as the name suggests captures data in black and white tone. This B/W data helps in the addition of details to the captured image by the RGB sensor. Also, this B/W sensor can be used as a standalone sensor for capturing only B/W image. The resolution and usage may vary depending on devices and manufacturers however the main utility and its purpose remain the same. E.g Honor 10 comes with 16+24 MP sensor where the 24MP lens is a B/W sensor, similarly the P9 and P10 along with the Honor 8, Mate 10/10 Pro came with a B/W sensor.
2. RGB + Wide angle -
This combination is used by LG and as the name suggests it is used for capturing more data or rather accumulate more scene in the image. The G5 was their first device to make use of the wide angle lens. For reference, the regular RGB sensor had a field of view of 75° whereas the wide angle lens can capture in 135° mode thereby allowing in for more information to be captured. The LG G6 and the G7 along with the V20 and V30 also followed the suit however the field of view has decreased since then. The G7 now can capture shots with 107° field of view which is much lesser than the G5 yet still decent. The other brand that made use of this combination is Asus which with the Zenfone 5 and 5Z incorporated a wide angle lens with 120 degree field of view.
Asus Zenfone 5/5z
This combination is the most widely used in the budget segment. Brands like Lenovo, Xioami and even OnePlus with the '6' have made use of this combination.The depth sensor helps in the portrait shots and via software the user can choose the amount of blur required by changing the 'F' value (focal length). Usually the resolution of the depth sensor used is much lesser for e.g the Redmi Note 5 Pro has a combination of 12 MP RGB and 5MP depth sensor also the Vivo X21 comes with 12+5MP sensors. The HTC one M8 too came equipped with a depth sensor and the early dual camera devices which were meant for 3D functionality also came with a depth sensor. The Honor 6X,7X, 9 lite and 9i also have a depth sensor of 2MP.
4. RGB + Telephoto lens -
The telephoto lens became a trend with the Apple iPhone 7 Plus. After the 7 Plus it was the 8 Plus and the iPhone X that boasted it and provided 2X or rather 2 times optical zoom. Optical zoom provides lossless zoom which cannot be obtained from a regular digital zoom. The digital zoom with the help of software adds in a lot of noise which is similar to zooming into an image after capturing the shot. The telephoto lens with the help of hardware helps in providing the same zoom-in quality which is also obtained by the regular lens if captured at 2X the distance. They also help with the portrait shots thereby improving the edge detection however it all depends upon the manufacturer to implement it properly else inspite of having a capable hardware many have failed to produce satisfactory results. Apart from Apple the other brands that fall into this line are OnePlus (with the OnePlus 5), Samsung with the Note 8 and S9 Plus, Xiaomi with the Mi8 and Mix 2S.
Mi 8
Huawei P20 Pro
Most of the times in the budget segment the dual cameras can be gimmicky (for eg. Moto G5s Plus and Lenovo K8 note made use of dual cameras but the implementation was a complete failure) yet they do serve a purpose on many other devices. The TANGO project made use of complex hardware that involved complex algorithms implemented on data gathered from the cameras also the CAT S60 which is a rugged phone from CAT makes use of a thermal sensor in addition to the regular camera sensor. Google is one brand which is yet to make use of dual cameras and from various renders the next gen Pixel might have it. The Pixel 2 with just a single sensor gets the portrait job right and is much better in quality when compared to any other dual camera counterpart. This indicates that a single sensor with proper software implementation and processing can yield better results which many other manufacturers are lacking hence follow the trend although there are exceptions like the P20 Pro.
Do you own a device with dual cameras ? If yes then what is the combination used and are you satisfied with the image quality that it generates ? Do let us know.
Images via : Moto India ; Xiaomi China ;Asus;