【Mika Muroi Archives】

The Mika Muroi Archiveshistory of smartphone photography is a never-ending chase after features of full-sized cameras while keeping the actual camera modules slim enough to fit a thin phone case. Impossibly and amazingly, the smartphone is winning this battle. A modern smartphone still can’t replace a professional-grade DSLR at a sporting event, but it can take one hell of a good photo, especially in the daytime. 

Megapixel counts seemed to have peaked, and manufacturers have mostly settled for modules ranging from 12 to 20 megapixels. But how do you tackle the physical constraints of the tiny lenses that go into smartphone camera modules? 

SEE ALSO: Why your iPhone photos look so bad

One solution is to put in more lenses. Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus was one of the first major smartphones to bring something akin to optical zoom, with dual lenses with different focal lengths doing the work. So what’s next? 

China’s Oppo hinted at one possibility at the Mobile World Congress in February 2017, by showing a camera module that offers 5x “lossless” zoom. The details of the tech were somewhat murky, but the idea revolves, again, around using two lenses; one standard, and another a horizontally positioned telescope lens that gets light through a prism. And Light’s L16 camera comes with 16 lenses and takes 10 photos at once, resulting in a stunning 52-megapixel image.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

It’s fair to assume that Apple is working (or will license) similar technology, and we wouldn’t be too surprised for an iPhone in the near future (say, iPhone 2020) to an optical zoom even better than today's, perhaps as much as 5x.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Another area where digital photography is advancing rapidly is post-processing. Google showed how much can be done with post-processing in its Pixel phones, which take amazing photos without optical image stabilization. And a Google engineer recently figured out a way to take absolutely stellar photos in near-total darkness by taking a large number of photos in a short time-frame and then working some computational magic to remove nearly all traces of graininess. 

Finally, apps like Prisma employ the power of neural networks to turn regular photos into artwork, and I’m sure Apple’s code wizards are looking into ways to employ AI in order to improve smartphone photography. This will not only improve the quality of photos taken but do wonders for how these photos are tagged and organized.

Put all of that together, and you get a very bright future for smartphone photography; one in which physical constraints of smartphone cameras become less relevant as lenses multiply and work gets handed over to incredibly powerful processors.

All this tech is out there for the taking by Apple. iPhones in the future might easily be doing billions of computations on each photo you take in order to churn out that perfect nighttime panorama or club selfie. And with a couple of cleverly positioned lenses working in unison, features such as lossless, optical zoom and huge megapixel counts -- currently reserved for standalone cameras only -- should become bullet points on the iPhone spec sheet.

---

Featured Video For You

---

What the iPhone will look like next

---

Topics Cameras

• Tech
• Science
• Digital Culture
• Games
• Entertainment
• Deals
• Shopping
• Life

• 'Black Mirror' Season 7: 'Hotel Reverie,' explained
• Musk: SpaceX's Starlink internet service will work in high
• BYD’s first supercar can dance, self
• Li Auto shares surge after first annual profit · TechNode
• Stablecoin bill advances in U.S. Senate as Trump critics call to end his crypto dealings
• Don't buy the 'murder hornet' hype
• Build 2024: 3 new features coming to Microsoft Teams
• TikTok launches $1 million social impact program
• New MIT report reveals energy costs of AI tools like ChatGPT
• Douyin joins low

• How Google's Jigsaw is trying to detoxify the internet
• Everything coming to Amazon Prime Video in February 2019
• Underwater GoPro captures moment before kid was bitten by crocodile
• 'Wounds' puts Armie Hammer through the wringer: Review
• Guy responsible for creating clown fear tells everyone to chill
• Dramatic video shows a kitten being rescued from a 12
• Google also bends Apple's rules to 'research' user browsing habits
• Here's why you shouldn't experiment with your plastic £5 notes
• 'Black Panther' returns to theaters with free screenings
• Teslas, EVs struggle in the polar vortex

• Mac Mini M2 Desktop deal: Save $100 at Best Buy
• Scientists think they've found a way to get your cat to pay attention to you
• OnePlus offers a refund for OnePlus 12R 256GB phone after inaccurate UFS 4.0 claim · TechNode
• AT&T outage: If your phone says SOS, this might be why
• Today's Hurdle hints and answers for April 17, 2025
• Musk: SpaceX's Starlink internet service will work in high
• NYT's The Mini crossword answers for May 22
• A 'Bluey' kids party in Las Vegas upset children and parents
• The 10 Most Anticipated PC Games of 2017
• Alibaba and Meituan back new Chinese AI startup valued at $2.5 billion valuation · TechNode

• Best portable power station deal: Save $179.01 on the EcoFlow River 2 Max
• Amazed astronaut in SpaceX capsule shoots video of our home planet
• Scientists discover treasure trove of species in a cloud forest
• China breaks record for domestic trips made during Lunar New Year holiday period · TechNode
• The Made in America iPhone: How much would it cost?
• Scientists discover treasure trove of species in a cloud forest
• Xiaomi has its own version of Apple's ill
• Where to pre
• The strangeness of Japan's decision to start openly hunting whales
• Wordle today: The answer and hints for May 23