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Iphone Cellphones Apple Hardware Technology

Apple May Introduce a Triple-Camera iPhone This Year (thenextweb.com) 107

Posted by BeauHD from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with dept.
A rumor from The Korea Herald suggests that Apple may be planning on introducing its first triple camera smartphone this year with the rumored 6.5-inch iPhone. The rumor comes buried in a piece mostly about Samsung, which is also expected to introduce a triple-camera smartphone with next year's S10. The Next Web reports: To be clear, this isn't the first time we've heard word of a triple camera iPhone, but the three previous reports have pointed to a 2019 release, according to MacRumors. One of these reports was from Ming Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst who has a solid track record. The fact that's it's mentioned offhandedly in the Korea Herald report makes me think the date may have been a mistake. No matter how good AI and processing get, there's only so much you can do within the physical constraints of a small smartphone sensor. In theory, using multiple cameras and combining the information with some smart processing could help you somewhat replicate the image quality of a larger sensor.
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Apple May Introduce a Triple-Camera iPhone This Year More

Apple May Introduce a Triple-Camera iPhone This Year

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  • Yawn. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mcmonkey ( 96054 ) on Friday June 01, 2018 @08:14PM (#56713376) Homepage

    Phones with 3 cameras. Razors with 5 blades. Monkeys with 6 asses.

    No room for an sd slot, removable battery, or headphone jack. But 3 cameras, sure.

    • A minimum of two cameras are needed to capture 3D images. Two will work, but you can end up with shadows. Three reduces the amount of shadowing. I suspect the optimal balance of reduced shadowing and minimizing camera expense is e cameras (2.718). So three is a better match than two.

      I was hopeful the light field camera [wikipedia.org] was going to be the solution. It basically turns every point on the lens into a separate camera for the purposes of capturing 3D info. But development (and interest) seems to have st [extremetech.com]

      • I'm too ugly for even one camera, let alone three.
        My friends chipped in to get me a basic phone.
        Now I don't have to look at them either.

      • A minimum of two cameras are needed to capture 3D images. .... Perhaps what we really need first is some means of displaying 3D images (that doesn't require wearing dorky glasses).

        If you live in n dimensions of space, you'll only ever see (n-1)-dimensional images, because the ray of light takes up one dimension. Light rays won't give any info about depth along their axes. Of course, with translucent materials you can focus at different depths at a time to capture 2D slices. Perhaps with today's tech you could do this fast enough get decent 3D images at decent framerates. But most of it will be wasted because you'll only see two 2D images at a time.

    • Bad for them, Huawei already has a phone with 4 cameras scheduled for this year.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tsa ( 15680 )

        You can take 5D pictures with that one!

        Pity you can't display them on its 2D screen.

    • Apple is obsessed with AR. Having two cameras on the back will give depth perception, making AR easier.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      It'd be nice if one of the cameras was on the other end of the phone, so it can take 3D photos and video.

      When I say "nice", I mean a novelty that will amuse us briefly. Like UHD.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Multiple cameras do make sense for phones, because they have very limited optics. Being so flat it's difficult to do things like moving lenses or variable apertures. So the solution is have two different cameras, one with a wide angle lens and one with a narrow one, or one with black and white sensor for detail and one with colour.

      Problem then is you have to pick what cameras you want and can't change. Apple might try having 3 so they have more options.

      Personally I prefer Google's "computational photography

    • You understand that cameras are surface mount components that go on the back, right? Where there's a sea of unused space? And the three things you gripe about need a lot of depth or volume in a device that every manufacturer (for reasons nobody quite understands) wants to be thinner?

      Adding another camera might make the existing "bump" on the back of the phone for two cameras just span the width of the phone, finally making it not sit on a desk like that bad table at the diner down the street that needs a

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tsa ( 15680 )

      Courage.
      Courage would be to put an SD slot in, instead of yet another camera.

  • Since they were so tight on space maybe now that they've clearly miniturised components to the point where they can fit more shit in, maybe they could bring the headphone jack back.

  • Everyone had a double edged razor, I still do, don't use it often though ;)
    Now we have multi headed razors that are so expensive the refills are kept in locked boxes ;) lol The marketers are bragging about the number of blades and mositure strips ;) lol

    Anyway, so now it is a 3 camera phones, these smart phones are all getting so yesterday ;)

    Just my 2 cents ;)
    • Blade razors kept clogging for me, so I went to an electric razor. Then I noticed the trimmer on the electric razor did a better job than the razor itself, so I bought a trimmer. Now that is all I use.

  • We're doing five cameras.

  • Steve Jobs is winding fast in his grave [engadget.com]. That's bigger than anything from any other vendor. Courage?

  • AI? Wtf? Do we need AI label slapped everywhere? It's an damn extra camera - a lens and a CCD. What AI is there?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      The AI does advanced math on the 3 images so that all fit together into a trendy image.
      Take the "3" images into AI software and select the light and what has to be in focus.
      The 3 images give the user more light information and focus to select a part of the image they really think will make them look artistic and skilled.
      Click when when ready and the "AI" will save an image.
      AI created software bokeh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] with a tap/click of the user.
      3 images blended by software into one imag

      • Wow, another guy mixing up what even the most primitive AIs are. A picture processing algorithm is not AI at the slightest.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AHuxley ( 892839 )
          Re "A picture processing algorithm is not AI at the slightest."
          3 lens designs on the back of a consumer smartphone can only do so much.
          So the 3 images that result are going to have to be presented in some interactive way to the user expecting something new out of their new and very trendy smartphone.
          Lets call it the AI bokeh enhancer. The AI focus creator. The AI part helps the very average user enhance their images. Detects the face, gets people in focus and allows the user to save the most pleasing
    • The AI is for post processing. For example, the latest phoje from Google has one of the top phones right now, but a lot of that is just being really good at setting white balance and brightness.

  • The Samsung rumor is at least consistent with one of the patent applications I made while at Google; it was for a multidirectional camera using a single CCD to effectively create more than one camera aperture.

    Mostly the intent was to reduce COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), by about $35 per camera assembly.

    In practice, it might also have resulted in an overall thinner device.

  • Puny iPhone ...

    The xKCD Phone 2000 [xkcd.com] has 5 cameras!

  • I'd like a wide shot selfie camera, for when I forgot a selfie stick but need to fit everyone in the photo.

    • No, this new widget camera is for augmented reality. You hold it up, while it runs the iFriends app, and you can look through the screen and see other people near you. People who think your new phone is really cool.

  • Already been done (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The Huawei P20 Pro, which came out in March, already uses 3 cameras. According to online reviews for the P20 Pro, the triple-camera setup does dramatically improve image quality, especially under low-light conditions.

  • I am still bitter about the headphone jack and even if Apple puts 50 cameras on it, I am going to pass.

    In my opinion, Apple's bad design decisions since 2015 are only getting worse and worse.

    Johnny Ive's needs to be demoted.

  • My Kyocera DuraForce Pro from 2016 has three cameras. One front-facing, one regular rear, one action rear with wide-angle lens, meant for underwater shots.

    Welcome to a couple years ago, Apple.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      CAT S60 has three cameras: front facing, rear facing, rear facing IR. I prefer my cameras to augment my eyesight, not show me things I can already see.

      It's designed to be used while scuba-diving too, has an audio jack, has a border so you can hold it and not touch the screen at the same time, has a notch above the screen instead of inside it and did so before notches were cool, and has a non-thin border so you don't accidentally slice all your fingers off if you grip it too tightly.

  • I'm curious to know what a 3rd camera would offer a phone?
    I've seen the pictures from an iPhone X with the fake depth of field thing, regardless of it being fake, it does look really quite nice.

    Modern smartphone cameras are really good, even for a single lense. Any smart guys here know what a full 3 could do for a phone?

    Oh and all the comments whining about the headphone jack? Agreed entirely. Idiotic move, I'll wait for someone else to copy the 3 cameras, when it's on a phone with a headphone jack.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Very Large Telescope [wikipedia.org]

      The VLT consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m across, which are generally used separately but can be used together to achieve very high angular resolution.

      ...when all the telescopes are combined, the facility can achieve an angular resolution of about 0.001 arc-second. In single telescope mode of operation angular resolution is about 0.05 arc-second.

      Angular resolution [wikipedia.org]

      Angular resolution or spatial resolution describes the ability of any image-forming

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by f00zbll ( 526151 )
      the most obvious reason is binocular vision for more AR stuff. The current setup of 2 different cameras aren't idea for binocular vision. Not that it can't be done, but typically binocular vision is done with two identical cameras. The problem though is the cameras have to be oriented horizontally and have enough distance between them to get good results. That would mean a dramatic change in design, which is highly doubtful.

    • I'm curious to know what a 3rd camera would offer a phone?

      Huawei's already done it. Looks like their as well as Apple's third camera will be for zoom features.

  • It is going to be interesting to see how they market the new wafer-thin metalenses when they hit production in a few years. They have no need to be round and open up the ability to tune the angle from which incoming light is focused on each pixel of the sensor.

    We could have sensors that are a rectangular strip the width of the camera that use a lens that essentially makes each pixel or small group of pixels a camera looking in different directions or the same from varying points of view. The end result shou

  • Why not stereo? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jtgd ( 807477 ) on Saturday June 02, 2018 @01:14AM (#56714216)
    No mention of putting the cameras on opposite ends of the phone so you could use it for stereoscopic photos. That would be cool.

  • There will be a 1 cm hole in the center of the screen for a new camera. And we'll all have to rewrite our apps to literally work around the problem.

  • No matter how good AI and processing get, there's only so much you can do within the physical constraints of a small smartphone sensor.

    Every human has the same physicality, therefore the same brain architecture.

    It's the software, stupid.

  • This makes pretty good business sense because the phones are already practically disposable. Next someone will have a 4-camera phone, and then we'll see 5 cameras.

  • Maybe they should release one without a massive, widespread defect for once instead. That seems like a better use of R&D money.
  • Instead of adding MORE cameras, how about making the stupid image sensor array LARGER. By increasing the size of the sensor array, EACH sensor would be LARGER, allowing for MORE light to be captured. Then, by adding a LARGER lens, you wouldn't need all of these gimmicks suck as 2,3 or more cameras. But, in the age of "more is better" sheep on the Apple & Android front, will probably fall for this garbage.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      Someone doesn't own the company that makes the larger sensors... I say that as a joke, watch it be true.

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