Kellen
I can’t say that I have read a single comment on Droid Life within the past couple of years asking for the return of dual cameras on the backs of phones, but they are coming, at least according to a report out of ETnews. Apparently, wide-angle, focus-adjusting, and 3D photography, along with a future full of iris scanning, are the next hotness in mobile tech and suppliers of smartphone parts are beginning to prepare for a competition.
According to ETnews, the LG G5 will be one of the first flagship phones to ship with a dual camera setup. That idea certainly matches up to an exclusive set of photos we received over the weekend that shows the G5 locked inside of a dummy box. Our pictures show the rear side of the phone with dual camera lenses on each side of a flash. Other reports have also claimed that the G5 will have dual cameras as well, plus we have case manufacturers showing imagery that supports this idea.
LG won’t be the only company to get into dual cameras, though. This report suggests that Samsung will begin to mass produce dual camera modules this year as well, in hopes of selling them to a number of smartphone manufacturers because manufacturers are “choosing dual cameras one after the other.” ETnews isn’t suggesting that a Galaxy phone will have dual cameras at any point in the near future, just that Samsung will produce modules for other phone makers, many of which will be in China.
This report makes the claim that because smartphone cameras have peaked in terms of quality, smartphone makers will look to introduce new features, like being able to measure depth with two cameras. Two cameras also could help with wide-angle photography, more 3D fun, and eventually, iris scanner.
That sound familiar? The same thing happened years ago with 3D phones, but more recently, with HTC and the One M8. HTC introduced gimmicky dual cameras to the One M8, one of which was used to measure depth and allow users to refocus photos after the fact and do some other really dodgy effects. The idea was somewhat interesting, except for the fact that HTC still thought 4MP photos were good enough at the time. It also didn’t help that companies like Samsung and Sony were able to reproduce post-focusing with software.
With LG gearing up for dual cameras in the G5, I can’t imagine the effect will be much different than what HTC did. All we’ll get this time around, unless LG has a really useful trick up its sleeve that we aren’t yet realizing, is higher resolution photos of the same old gimmick. Does anyone really want that? Honestly, I’d rather LG spend time cleaning up its poorly executed software interface.
Who wants dual cameras? Maybe that shouldn’t be a question, since it sounds like we may not have a choice in the near future.
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