Understand what each cell phone camera is for (lenses and advantages)
Table of Contents
With smartphones increasingly dominating the digital photography industry — whether in the hands of everyday users or even professionals — cell phone cameras are recurring topics when we look at the main models available on the market today. Understanding What is each cell phone camera used for? is crucial for choosing a good smartphone, especially when its main purpose is to capture images through the small but powerful lenses available. Let's take a look at each of them now.
Resolution: How many megapixels does a camera need to have?
Before we classify What is each cell phone camera used for?, it is crucial that we address a topic that is always on the agenda: after all, what is a pixel? Explaining, all digital image — that is, the image captured by a smartphone, tablet, digital camera, or even when scanned into a digital medium — contains a vast number of tiny rectangles called “pixels.” A pixel It is the smallest element of visual information in a digital image. Each pixel, however, contains LEDs (light-emitting diodes) that generate its color.
As digital photographs that we see, or the videos we watch, are formed by these elements — colored square dots, almost imperceptible as a unit to the naked eye, but which, together with thousands of other pixels, serve to form very complex images. The number of pixels in an image (photo or video) determines its resolution quality. (or comfort, as it is also known). Therefore, it is represented by two numbers of quantity of pixels, ordered sequentially in horizontal and vertical positions, such as, for example, 1920 x 1080 (the call Full HD).
1 Megapixel (MP) is equivalent to 1 (one) million pixels. Thus, a 12 MP (megapixel) image contains 12 million pixels, which can also translate into a resolution of 4000 x 3000 pixels, in the case of a image in 4×3 aspect ratio (read more about this resolution in our special article), or in other variants that fit up to the approximate value of 12.000.000 pixels, such as 3960 x 2970 or 4290 x 2800.
The more pixels a photo contains, the smaller they must be to fit within it, making their unity increasingly less noticeable and generally providing greater sharpness and detail, depending on the situation. In other words, the more pixels an image has, the better it will look on a larger screen without losing quality—something that occurs with low-resolution images. Photos that contain a larger number of pixels, can be described as high resolution — like HD resolution (1280 x 720) or 4K (3840 x 2160), the latter with almost 4000 pixels wide horizontally (explaining the origin of the nomenclature).
Coming back to the topic at hand, how many megapixels does a camera need to haveChoosing a camera to deliver the best possible image resolution will largely depend on where it will be viewed. Smaller projections, such as small screens and monitors, don't require many pixels to display with good quality, and too many can even be distracting. Meanwhile, displays on large screens or printed images require a higher resolution to be visibly sharper, clearer, and without generating the "pixelated effect" (low quality).
In theory, smartphone cameras with a range of 12 to 50 megapixels are more geared towards the average user, delivering good image quality, both for posting on social media and for simpler printing. On the other hand, cameras that reach values greater than 64 megapixels, even reaching 200 SM, are part of a more premium category and are aimed at users who need high quality for printing or even for broader digital editing, when it is necessary to zoom in very closely or make several cuts within the same image.
Sensor size: why does it matter?
Not as popular as the amount of Megapixels, but also very important, the sensor size of a lens It also matters when we want to take a photo with the best possible quality. They are described in fractional numbers in inches, such as 1/1.2", 1/2.52", or 1/3.6", with sensors whose denominator is smaller being considered larger, which can reach up to 1 (1/1").
Responsible for capturing light, converting it into an electrical signal and transforming it into a digital image, the lens sensor Sensors can take on different sizes, and this will influence the quality, fidelity, and sharpness of a photo. Therefore, the larger the sensor, the greater the light input, which translates into greater clarity, sharpness, less noise (randomly spaced pixels or grainy images), greater depth of field (wide focus across the entire image), and better capture performance, even in low-light environments.
For example, the Galaxy s25 ultra has a sensor with a size of 1 / 1.3 ”in its main camera (200 MP), 1 / 2.5 ”in the Ultrawide (50 MP), 1 / 3.52 ”in the Telephoto (10 MP), 1 / 2.52 ”in the Periscope (50 MP) and 1 / 3.2 ”in the Front (12 MP). The main camera (48 MP) of the iPhone 16 Pro Max It has a sensor with a size of 1/1.28”, in addition to 1/2.55” in the Ultrawide camera (48 MP), 1/3.06” in the Telephoto (12 MP) and 1/3.6” in the Front (12 MP). Next, we will see more about each of these cameras and the best time to use them.
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the number of pixels and sensor size, other factors also influence the quality of a camera, such as ISO, shutter speed, presence of HDR, good software processing, Among others.
Why does the cell phone have multiple cameras?
To make the photos increasingly professional and give them the best possible treatment, whether approaching or moving away, the smartphones can have several cameras, or even, as has become more common, multiple lenses within the same camera, each with distinct features and operating methods. This arrangement makes the devices even more versatile, often putting them on par with professional cameras in terms of quality and image capture from different perspectives.
It is important to realize that, increasingly, cell phone lenses has been receiving improvements, whether by adding functions, sensors, and other enhancements, but also by trying to imitate professional cameras in terms of focal length, aperture angle, optical zoom, among other features. The existence of several cell phone cameras It gives the device a greater variety of uses and allows for a wide range of options for recording moments, all in the palm of your hand.
Types of cameras/lenses
We will see now What is each cell phone camera used for?. The functions of each camera will be described, as well as the cell phone lenses and its sensors, to answer questions about what is ultrawide camera, what is macro camera, what is a telephoto lens, among other questions. Check out each one.
Wide angle
A Wide-angle (standard wide), known as the cell phone's main camera, is generally the one with the highest quality lens and is often used for photos and videos taken at natural proximity. With different, but similar, lens aperture and focal length values between cell phone models, this camera is very useful for recording close-up scenes and also everyday images, such as landscapes and architectural elements. It ensures greater balance and versatility in scenes, combining its capabilities with zoom functions, greater use of the device's AI, and a wide field of view.
Top smartphones with camera wide angle:
Ultra wide angle (Ultrawide)
Consisting of a lens with a curvature angle (around 120°) larger than the wide angle, Ultra wide angle, or UltraWide — also known as the panoramic cell phone camera — has the characteristic of enlarging the image content, giving the impression that the photo was taken from a greater distance than the original. Because it has a shorter focal length, which allows for a wider field of view, it is able to bring together more elements in the photo and is perfect for capturing more elements of the landscape, use in places where it is impossible to move away, or even to take that photo with your family or with a large group of friends where everyone has to “fit” into the image.
Its only drawback is that, as this lens has a large angle of curvature, favoring the expansion of the horizon, elements positioned at the edges of the image or very close objects end up being distorted, generating the popular “fish eye” effect (fisheye), which occurs when a photo is stretched or rounded at its edges. However, many recent smartphone models are improving this aspect to make it even less noticeable.
Top smartphones with camera Ultra wide angle:
Macro
Already Macro lens It's used to capture very close-up images, going where conventional cameras can't focus, avoiding close-up blur and allowing you to observe the smallest details in nearby objects. It captures details even imperceptible to the naked eye by reducing the image coverage area and acting as a magnifying lens for photos taken within 10 centimeters of the subject.
An interesting detail is that this lens is increasingly being built into the Ultra Wide Angle camera, taking advantage of the aforementioned distortion defect to provide a very close focus on the center of the image. In other cases, it has also been replaced by the phone's internal processing, offering the software-based magnification function—an option more commonly found on phones with higher processing power.
Still, despite the Macro lens increasingly linked to an improved function or being incorporated into another lens, as we mentioned, there are some devices that still have a dedicated Macro camera. Its main existence in more basic or entry-level smartphones is mainly due to the little technology they have in their hardware set to offer the feature without the need for a separate lens.
A macro camera é ideal for photographing small or tiny objects, such as dolls, flowers and insects, or even to give a very close focus at some point or detail to capture the maximum detail.
Main smartphones with dedicated Macro camera:
Main smartphones with Macro camera incorporated into Ultra wide-angle:
Telephoto and Periscope Lens
We now enter the optical zoom cameras, which, using their zoom lenses, allow you to get closer to the subject without compromising the quality of the photo. Unlike digital zoom—which enlarges the image via software by stretching the pixels—optical zoom uses a set of lenses to zoom in on the image without distorting it.
Among the increasingly popular optical zoom cameras on smartphones, the telephoto camera (or telephoto) consists of a set of lenses that can be combined with each other to generate a zoom of some levels in relation to the original value of the image, as is the case with telephoto cameras on smartphones Galaxy s25 ultra e iPhone 16 Pro Max, which achieve 3x and even 5x optical zoom. Many cell phones, in fact, use the telephoto lens to combine them with digital zoom (via software), thus achieving very high zoom values, as is the case with the first image in the group of photos above, whose 5x optical zoom was increased to 50x!
Another very interesting fact about telephoto camera, and which is also its main reason for existing, is that it allows you to take photos in Portrait Mode (It is made bokeh, which blurs the background of the image in contrast to the highlighted image) in a surprising way. Because they have smaller sensor size, as well as a longest focal length and smaller lens aperture (we will explain these two terms later), it focuses better on the highlighted object, in addition to generating greater background compression, resulting in a more precise and smooth effect in these types of photos.
In general, the telephoto camera It is perfect for photographing objects or scenes at great distances, such as an architectural detail, a distant person, the rising of the moon, a wild animal from afar, among others.
Main smartphones with telephoto camera:
Further increasing the zoom level and operating through technology that harks back to submarine lenses, the periscopic camera is an camera type Telephoto, but which works through a set of prisms and lenses positioned vertically on the smartphone to provide a larger space to generate an optical zoom of more times than the original value, reaching values as close as 10x. Its great advantage is that it gives the photographer the power to reach long distances and approaches to ensure that even the smallest details are captured in the photo without losing qualityThis translates into new possibilities for interesting photos, impossible to take on lower-end phones.
A periscopic camera It initially works with light being received by a camera and a prism, which reflects the image at a 90-degree angle. At this point, a set of parallel lenses receives the image—which can be moved to generate a greater or lesser degree of zoom—until it reaches the final sensor, generating a high level of optical zoom in the photos. Everything is designed to minimize the phone's space, allowing the device to remain relatively thin and preventing it from reaching values that are incompatible with its portability, a key feature of smartphones.
Main smartphones with Periscope Telephoto Camera:
Front (Selfie and video call camera)
A Front camera The selfie camera, also known as the "selfie camera," is usually located at the top of the device's screen, allowing the user to see their own face while making a video call or taking a photo of themselves or a group of people. Currently, it can achieve excellent quality for both photos and videos and video conferencing.
On the best current smartphones, such as the Galaxy s25 ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max, you can expect 12 MP resolution, a Wide lens, relatively large sensors (although smaller than those on the rear cameras) and even support for HDR and 4K recording.
Top smartphones with camera Front:
types of sensors
As cell phone cameras also have some sensors to optimize the results of your photographs. Whether for mapping space or stabilizing images, let's look at the most popular ones.
Flash
O flash serves to add illumination to photos, ideal for use at night or in places with little or no light. On cell phones, Flash sensor is positioned next to the rear cameras and is most commonly used as the cell phone flashlight. Because it has an LED light, it is used in conjunction with the camera to simulate a flash effect when taking photos with the option activated. There are also some cell phone models that allow this flash via frontal camera, using the brightness of the screen for this purpose, as is the case with retina Flash No. iPhone 16 Pro.
Laser Autofocus
O Laser Autofocus, also called laser autofocus (LAF), uses an invisible laser beam to detect the distance of the subject being photographed. Through this beam, an infrared light beam is sent to the subject and reflected back to the sensor, in order to calculate the elapsed time and, thus, obtain the distance between it and the sensor, allowing the lens to be focused and obtain greater sharpness.
About the advantages of this sensor, it works even where there is little lighting, in addition to being extremely fast and direct due to the precise calculation of the speed of light. However, it is an expensive technology and limited to a few meters of distance to work due to the laser's power.
Depth
O Depth sensor refers to the lens's perception of distance from the object in contrast to the background. To do this, it maps the object or person three-dimensionally to obtain an accurate and complete notion of distance in contrast to everything else.
He is ideal for taking photos with a blurred background (It is made bokeh) and blur everything that is not in the foreground of the element in focus in the scene, a characteristic of photos in Portrait ModeThis sensor can also highlight background lights, giving photos a unique charm, and is also very useful for use with augmented reality applications.
ToF or LiDAR
The sensor ToF, or Time of Flight (Flight time, in free translation), aims to three-dimensionally map the environment to be photographed through the emission and reflection of a pulse of infrared light or, in the case of the sensor LiDAR (acronym for Light Detection And Ranging, detection and ranging of light, in free translation), through multiple light beams at an even greater distance, such as radar. It is known to ensure a greater accuracy in Portrait Mode photos, to validate the 3D facial recognition and it is also very useful in augmented reality apps.
OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
The sensor OIS (Optical Image Stabilization, or Optical Image Stabilization, in Portuguese) is a technology that combines a sensor and microprocessor to detect and correct unwanted camera movements during photo or video capture. To prevent photos and videos from coming out blurry due to shakiness when captured, it uses the movement of the phone's lens and gyroscope motors, which, together with the hardware and system, calculate the movement and counteract the unwanted movement.
This stabilization system serves to compensate for shaking and, thus, enable the best recording of a photo or video, correcting blurs, out of focus or trails, resulting from movement when holding the smartphone in different situations, such as inside a moving car, walking on the street, during a wind wave, or even when your hand is shaking.
Focal length
Returning to features of cell phone cameras, focal distance, or focal length, of a lens refers to the measurement between the camera's image sensor and its focal point inside the lens, calculated in millimeters (mm). This measurement tells us how close the lens can see, meaning a greater view of the object (longer focal length = narrow angle of view), which allows you to see more of the person or object in the photo; or a greater view of the scene (shorter focal length = wide angle of view), ideal for landscape photography.
Taking the cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, we have the following settings: 24mm on the main camera, 26mm on the front, 67mm on the telephoto lens and 111mm on the periscopic telephoto lens. In the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the top-of-the-line cell phone from Apple Currently, the measurements are close: 13mm on the ultrawide camera, 23mm on the front camera, 24mm on the main camera and 120mm on the telephoto camera. From the values mentioned, we can see that the greater the distance the camera is intended to record (as is the case with the telephoto, which achieves high levels of optical zoom), the higher the focal length (mm).
Aperture
Set to values like f/1.8 and f/2.0, the aperture of a lens (or diaphragm aperture) is related to the amount of light and speed that can be obtained in a photo. The smaller the f-value — that is, the smaller the value followed by the slash — the larger the aperture. higher aperture value implies a greater amount of light entering the sensor, with clearer and brighter photos, ensuring a better result at night and in dark environments.
Another consequence for cell phone cameras on greater opening is that it provides a shallower depth of field (distance between the object and the background), which, on the one hand, allows for greater background blur, being ideal for portrait mode photos.
To understand better, let's look, as an example, at the aperture values of the lenses of Galaxy s25 ultra and iPhone 16 Pro MaxBased on these, we can see that cameras designed for closer shots (such as ultrawide, main, and front-facing cameras) have a larger lens aperture (smaller f/number), while zoom cameras have a smaller aperture (larger f/number). See:
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: f/1.7 (main), f/1.9 (ultrawide), f/2.2 (front), f/2.4 (telephoto), f/3.4 (periscope telephoto);
- iPhone 16 Pro Max: f/1.78 (main), f/2.2 (ultrawide), f/1.9 (front), f/2.8 (telephoto).
And that was our article on how cell phone cameras work. In addition to the main functional descriptions and best uses for each of the main smartphone lenses, we also cover pixels, sensors, aperture, and focal length. Everything you need to ensure you have no doubts when choosing your next device. Let us know what you thought of this article, and which camera do you use most on your phone?
Learn more
Text revised by Alexandre Marques in 25 / 07 / 2025.
Sources: Digital Bureau, BlackView, Mercado Livre, @Apple Explained via YouTube, alura, POKDE.NET, Huawei, MTPOST, Smartphones, Quora, The Smartphone Photographer, Capture the Atlas, Motorola, GSMArena, Apple , Samsung, DxOMark.
Discover more about Showmetech
Sign up to receive our latest news via email.
