Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 12 Pro Rear Glass Photo Shows Camera Layout With LiDAR Scanner

WRX-SRQ said:
Jesus is that hideous. Why can't we just go back to a single camera? Imagine the camera and the size of a sensor that could fit in that camera bump? The bigger the sensor the better the image. As a professional photographer, I'm never giving up my A7R IV, but if you gave me a smartphone that had a massive single lens camera on the back, I'd be all in.
Click to expand...

That's not how lenses work. The larger the sensor, the wider and longer your lens needs to be and we're not talking focal length here, actual physical length. You don't want a snap-on lens on a phone or an automatically telescoping one like pocket cameras on a smart phone. For long focal lengths, the periscope works great (sensor and lens mounted sideways and a 45° mirror at the end) on big Android phones.

The idea between multiple cameras is that you have multiple sensors and the software combines it all smartly. Taking a picture with the normal or telephoto lens will use the image from the wider lenses to gather additional light to reduce noise, also the wide angle lens is fantastic for automatic wide balance since it sees a lot of the surrounding environment.

Think of it like having a whole bunch of cameras with prime lenses on them, all running at once. In many circumstances a modern smartphone gets you better pictures than a medium range DSLR from 8 years ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: artfossil
Donnation said:
I wish Apple would stop putting features like LIDAR that maybe only a tiny fraction of the population might care about. They talk about it in their keynotes like its some game changing feature, when 99.9% of the population will never use it. Augmented Reality isn't a thing, and there is no evidence that its going to be a thing. I just don't get their fascination with it and all they do is use it to justify jacking up the price of their phones.
Click to expand...

Being able to measure objects in real life, with your phone, would absolutely be a game-changing feature to me. I am often in situations I wish I had a tape measure with me. A lidar sensor isn't really a "feature" it's a tool that then allows people to invent features for it. And there's no way to know whether people will make useful apps around it until you throw it out there and see what happens. AR does not have to be relegated to playing stupid virtual games on a coffee table. And just because something isn't used every day doesn't make it worthless. In the medical community, AR can have a profound impact and save lives. Imagine you are with someone that is having a heart attack, and you hold your phone up and it shows you all the defibrillators that are nearby. In medical training, it could help nurses see the location of veins on a human body. I know it seems stupid now, and maybe it will end up being a flop, but we won't know until it's out in the public and developers start getting creative with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Momof2.1107
4jasontv said:
That was rude.

Saying I can't wait for the new device is no different than saying I can't wait for Christmas, or the Superbowl, or to hit the gym. It's an expression of desire not a demand of time-turning. There are appropriate and inappropriate places to do things. It's ok to check yourself out at the gym but not so at the bank, just like it's ok to talk endlessly about the new iPhone at MacRumors but not at bodybuilder.com. You probably think you see it frequently here because this is the place to discuss those things.
Click to expand...
I think alot of us are big fan of Apple.
 
robotfist said:
Being able to measure objects in real life, with your phone, would absolutely be a game-changing feature to me. I am often in situations I wish I had a tape measure with me. A lidar sensor isn't really a "feature" it's a tool that then allows people to invent features for it. And there's no way to know whether people will make useful apps around it until you throw it out there and see what happens. AR does not have to be relegated to playing stupid virtual games on a coffee table. And just because something isn't used every day doesn't make it worthless. In the medical community, AR can have a profound impact and save lives. Imagine you are with someone that is having a heart attack, and you hold your phone up and it shows you all the defibrillators that are nearby. In medical training, it could help nurses see the location of veins on a human body. I know it seems stupid now, and maybe it will end up being a flop, but we won't know until it's out in the public and developers start getting creative with it.
Click to expand...
LiDAR has been out on iPad Pros for 6 months already.
 
  • Like
Reactions: redbeard331
robotfist said:
Being able to measure objects in real life, with your phone, would absolutely be a game-changing feature to me. I am often in situations I wish I had a tape measure with me. A lidar sensor isn't really a "feature" it's a tool that then allows people to invent features for it. And there's no way to know whether people will make useful apps around it until you throw it out there and see what happens. AR does not have to be relegated to playing stupid virtual games on a coffee table. And just because something isn't used every day doesn't make it worthless. In the medical community, AR can have a profound impact and save lives. Imagine you are with someone that is having a heart attack, and you hold your phone up and it shows you all the defibrillators that are nearby. In medical training, it could help nurses see the location of veins on a human body. I know it seems stupid now, and maybe it will end up being a flop, but we won't know until it's out in the public and developers start getting creative with it.
Click to expand...

I think you are confusing Lidar with X-Ray. I don’t know that Lidar does anything but map an area and be able to show how real world items will fill into that area. It can’t locate particular objects for you and maps the area around you for better accuracy. It’s a camera that enhances distance and measurement, it can’t see through the human body to locate veins so I don’t really understand what you are talking about here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: A.wang28
WRX-SRQ said:
Jesus is that hideous. Why can't we just go back to a single camera? Imagine the camera and the size of a sensor that could fit in that camera bump? The bigger the sensor the better the image. As a professional photographer, I'm never giving up my A7R IV, but if you gave me a smartphone that had a massive single lens camera on the back, I'd be all in.
Click to expand...

As a photographer, you should know that the larger the sensor, the farther away the lens needs to be from that sensor. One the size of the camera bump as you’re suggesting would result in a lens more than an inch thick protruding from the body.

Multiple lenses is an ingenious way to get around that limitation while also adding multiple focal lengths. There is room from a technology standpoint to make sensors more efficient at capturing light on smaller surfaces. There is no room to overcome the physics of how light is projected on a surface from close proximity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: uller6
robotfist said:
I am often in situations I wish I had a tape measure with me.
Click to expand...

Tape measures are my chapstick. I have one in every room and despite using one this morning I still think it would take me 20 min to find one. I’d love a reliable way to measure. The dream would be to get it down to a mm.
 
Donnation said:
I think you are confusing Lidar with X-Ray. I don’t know that Lidar does anything but map an area and be able to show how real world items will fill into that area. It can’t locate particular objects for you and maps the area around you for better accuracy. It’s a camera that enhances distance and measurement, it can’t see through the human body to locate veins so I don’t really understand what you are talking about here.
Click to expand...
No. LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It’s used to accurately measure distances. It will allow AR to be extremely accurate in overlaying things on physical objects. It will also allow the Measure app to be much more accurate than it currently is. Right now if you move around too much it can get a little confused.

With him talking about veins, I think he was referring to overlaying a schematic of the veins on someone’s arm. I’m not sure how accurate that would be since everybody is different.
 
WRX-SRQ said:
Jesus is that hideous. Why can't we just go back to a single camera? Imagine the camera and the size of a sensor that could fit in that camera bump? The bigger the sensor the better the image. As a professional photographer, I'm never giving up my A7R IV, but if you gave me a smartphone that had a massive single lens camera on the back, I'd be all in.
Click to expand...

The sensors are rumored to grow 10% in size this year. And I agree a single but great camera is all it takes, remember Pixel 3, it had a single 12 MPx sensor that blew the big guys away.

Based on this picture I don’t see any major lens size change compared to my 11 Pro Max.

067427FB-B844-4A0A-B3EA-ACBACF4DE933.jpeg


Edit: To all of you saying LiDAR is useless you have no idea of the potential it portraits. I have been using LiDAR for Topography for years now, it is amazing. I have also used it for live scanning and some of my friends in Architecture and Interior Design use it to make very realistic projections. Yes I don't expect it to be anywhere as good as commercial products are, but to have it handy in your phone is going to be very cool.
 
Last edited:
LiDAR support would be cool but honestly a 6.7” iPhone is just way to large. My current iPhone 11 pro offers plenty of screen real estate so I’ll probably end up stepping down a size To the smaller size.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back