‘Twas the night… well, er, actually the morning before…

By | December 24, 2018
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‘Twas the night, well… er, actually it’s the morning before Christmas and all through the house my boys are certainly stirring…they have a lot of energy this close to the big day!

Anyway, this will be a fairly short email as I want to spend plenty of time playing with the boys (and trying to keep up with them) and then we’re having our big Christmas meal this afternoon.

But here’s something I learnt last week – (though you might have already known it…)

Julie and I were watching a programme on TV when the adverts came on. In amongst the adverts for perfume and all the sales that will apparently start shortly was one for a fancy new Samsung phone.

I wasn’t really paying attention, so I’m not sure what model, but I heard them say it had a quad camera. I looked up and on the back of the phone they were showing, where the camera is, it had four of them.

Well, I couldn’t see the point. I know with some cameras you can take 3d videos and that means you need two cameras. But I couldn’t see why you’d want four.

But Julie put me straight: apparently the main reason for having two cameras on a phone (I’m talking about two facing the same way, not having one to take photos of other people and one facing you when you’re using it for video phone calls or whatever) is it uses both to take one picture.

But each camera focuses on a different part. So if you have a picture of you in front of a mountain range in the distance, one lens will take the picture focused on you, the other will take it focuses on the mountains. Then the phone puts the two together so both bits are perfectly in focus.

It’s really clever stuff. And for any camera buffs, it means you can get the close bits and the far away bits in focus and still have a very quick exposure time, so movement doesn’t make things blurry.

The four camera phone does something similar – but it also has a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens you can choose between, as well as a “normal” one.  Then it uses the extra fourth lens to keep everything in focus no matter which of the three “main” lenses you’re using. 

If you’re a keen photographer it certainly means you could use your smartphone as a camera in more varied situations… and I can certainly see the point of having two cameras so everything stays in focus better.

As I say, you might have already known this (especially if you happen to have a phone with two cameras) but it was new to me and I found the idea of how it works interesting!

(And if you’re reading this, Julie, don’t worry, it’s not a coded hint of what I’d like for Christmas – I’m quite happy with my single camera phone. I just found it interesting to know how it works.)

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas.

2 thoughts on “‘Twas the night… well, er, actually the morning before…

  1. Sandra

    Happy Christmas and happy new year to all of you thanks for all the good emails x

    Reply
    1. Emma - The Helpful Book Company

      Merry Christmas Sandra, I hope you have a lovely time.
      Thanks
      Emma

      Reply

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