Mobile phones with auxiliary lens

Auxiliary lens

— the presence of an auxiliary lens in the module of the main (rear) camera of the smartphone. The common thing for all auxiliary lenses is that they do not shoot themselves, but only supply the main camera with useful additional data. But the types of this data and, accordingly, the methods of using auxiliary cameras can be different.

So, in some smartphones, an additional sensor with very small resolution is installed, which is used to obtain special information about the depth of field in some shooting modes (primarily in portrait mode). This format of work gives a number of interesting features — in particular, it allows you to change the depth of focus on an already finished image, moving the focus to a particular subject. Another interesting option is the so-called TOF (time of flight) cameras, which work kind of like rangefinders and are capable of creating 3D models of various objects (including reading facial expressions from the user's face). There are other options, such as a black-and-white secondary camera for increased dynamic range, and a fast aperture for better low-light shooting.