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One question that has been trending worldwide is, “What is a telephoto lens, and why is it present in mobile phones?” Do smartphones require a telephoto lens?
Nowadays, the rear side of a smartphone is so crowded that sometimes it has around four to five rear cameras. If you’re buying an expensive phone, know that telephoto lens will also be present among these rear cameras. However, if you’re buying a mid-range phone, the telephoto lens will be missing.
You can see the telephoto lens in expensive phones but not in mid-range smartphones. So, What is a telephoto camera, and is telephoto lens for smartphone necessary? Let’s understand.
Table of Contents
Is a Telephoto Lens Necessary in Mobile Phones?
A telephoto lens gives a massive upgrade to your photo and video quality. Therefore, a telephoto camera must be present in flagship and expensive smartphones. However, in mid-range phones, it is not necessary to have a telephoto lens as many other factors like processor, storage, etc. need to be taken care of.
What Is A Telephoto Lens And How Does It Work?
If you’re wondering what is a telephoto camera in mobile, look for the answer here.
A telephoto lens is a long-focus lens that makes the subject look closer than it actually is. It is best suited for the photographers who are unable to go close to their subjects, either because of physical constraints or because of concern or safety. You may call it as the zoom lenses for phones, but it is quite different from it.
Usually, a smartphone telephoto lens lies in the range of 40mm to 50mm, and their field of view usually lies between 25 degrees to 40 degrees. Now, as the focal length of the lens increases, the field of view decreases. This helps the camera to focus on the subject in a more efficient way. This is how the telephoto lens works. But why is it important to have telelens for smartphones? Let’s discuss this too.
What Are The Importance Of A Telephoto Lens?
Most of you may think that a telephoto lens is meant to zoom. This statement is partially correct. Although, the main function of a telephoto lens is to zoom on subjects clearly, the lens is useful in many other ways. Let’s dive into the importance of a telephoto lens.
Optical Zoom
Let’s start with the zoom. A phone telephoto lens is basically meant to zoom on the photographic subject properly without reducing its quality. Phones with telephoto lenses can give you an optical zoom rather than a pixel-bursting digital zoom.
An optical zoom maintains the picture quality, but if you zoom with a digital or electronic zoom feature, it will differentiate nothing.
Portrait Shots
The quality of portrait shots taken by a telephoto lens is unbelievable. If you own an iPhone or know someone who has an iPhone, then you must know that no one can beat an iPhone by clicking portrait pictures. It is so because an iPhone has an in-built telephoto lens.
The telephoto lens compresses the forefront and background area and focuses mainly on the subject while taking a portrait shot. It explains that the subject is focused properly, and the background is blurred in a very impressive manner by cutting the edges carefully.
The portrait photo taken from a telephoto lens is obvious and crisp. Sometimes, it comes so perfect that you won’t be able to differentiate between the pictures taken from a DSLR camera and a telephoto lens.
Do It For The Details
The telephoto lens captures the view in a more refined way. If you have a smart phone with telephoto lens in it, the details captured by it would be the next level. For instance, following are the two pictures are captured by Galaxy S21 Ultra Primary and Galaxy S21 Ultra Telephoto.
Look at the picture by yourself and tell which camera clicked a nice picture. The picture clicked by Galaxy S21 Ultra Primary looks very grainy with no clear focus. All the colors seem to be mixing. However, the telephoto lens gives a much clear shot. The picture is very detailed and impressive.
Compress the Perspective and Makes the Subject Appear Close
One important feature about a telephoto lens is that it helps in compressing the perspective. The lens squeezes the foreground and background areas and focuses appropriately on the subject. The telephoto lens is a long-focus lens; hence it makes the subject look closer than it actually is.
FAQs- Telephoto Lens
Is it good to have a telephoto lens on your smartphone?
A telephoto camera is one of the most useful and valuable lens present in your smartphone. It is good if you have a telephoto lens in your smartphone. However, a telephoto lens comes only in flagship mobile phones rather than mid-range mobile phones.
In case you can’t spend for expensive mobile phones to have a telephoto lens, don’t worry. You can have a macro lens, a depth sensor lens, and even a wide-angle lens in place of a telephoto lens.
What is the use of a telephoto lens in smartphones?
A phone with a telephoto lens gives a massive upgrade to your photo and video quality. Usually, a smartphone telephoto lens lies in the range of 40mm to 50mm, and their field of view usually lies between 25 degrees to 40 degrees. Now, as the focal length of the lens increases, the field of view decreases. This helps the camera to focus on the subject in a more efficient way.
Therefore, a telephoto camera must be present in flagship and expensive smartphones.
- Is a telephoto lens worth it?
The ability to capture amazing photos without any reduction in their quality can be done only by a telephoto lens. The telephoto lens helps get perfect portrait pictures, high-quality zoomed-in photos, and videos and balances the exposure very well. Using a telephoto lens to take photos to the next level. An investment in a telephoto lens is worth every penny.
Conclusion
So, is a telephoto lens necessary to be in a smartphone? We would say yes! A telephoto lens works wonders. However, it is not usually found in a mid-range smartphone. If you’re buying a new mid-range smartphone, you do not necessarily have to look for a telephoto lens because there many other things such as RAM, Display, Battery, etc., that need to be taken care of.
However, if you’re buying a flagship smartphone, make sure to purchase the one with a telephoto lens. Your flagship smartphone will be a flagship only if it has a telephoto lens in it.
Hope, you enjoyed reading this article as much as we loved writing it for you. If you have any doubts related to telephoto lens, feel free to ask us by putting them down in the comments section below!
