Next Apple iPhone may have 'biggest camera jump ever': report

Apple iPhone cameras are believed to be some of the best you can find on a smartphone. In the most recent iterations, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus , Apple raised the bar a notch higher with the addition of Focus Pixels, manual exposure control, high-resolution panorama photography, slow motion video and optical image stabilisation, though the last one is only for iPhone 6 Plus. Though new iPhones have been lauded for their camera abilities, Apple does not intend to stop there. After giving compact cameras a run for their money, Apple is set to take on professional cameras, with what some say will be the “biggest camera jump ever.” According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, an insider from Apple has revealed that the company is working on a new imaging technology that will allow users to take DSLR-like photos. He says, “The specific thing I heard is that next year’s camera might be the biggest camera jump ever. I don’t even know what sense this makes, but I’ve heard that it’s some kind of weird two-lens system where the back camera uses two lenses and it somehow takes it up into DSLR quality imagery.” Dual lenses have many applications in imaging technology. For example, Isreali company Corephotonics uses two 13 megapixel cameras to perform optical zoom of up to five times without any moving parts. HTC, on the other hand, claims to bring high-quality DSLR effects with the Duo Camera on the M8. According to HTC, “Two independent lenses allow it to detect and calculate the relative distance of subjects in the image. The imaging system then assigns properties to each individual pixel, which allows them to be re-purposed and reprocessed to maximize image quality.” While it’s still a very early stage, Apple could use a similar camera system in the next generation iPhone to improve on the image stabilisation and auto-focus capabilities.