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iPhone 11 Pro what does the bottom camera actually do on the 11 pro?

E

ekinnyc

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 22, 2008
110
8
per apple that's the telephoto camera
however i was playing around with the camera app, covering each lens with a finger.
the single lens on the right (if facing the back of the phone) is the wide angle
the top lens is both the normal and tele
covering the bottom one though, nothing happened... any ideas?
 
That's a good point - Just tried it. I never noticed that before. lol
 
Weird. I think you found a bug. Get it logged with Apple. Top lens is doing 1 and 2x. Next one is 0.5. Bottom one does nothing.

Edit: it won’t work if you just press 2x. If you use the slider zoom it will activate. Definitely a bug. It is basically doing digital zoom when you press the 2x button and not optical.
 
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Strange, mine does the same. If I switch over to Time-Lapse or Portrait in 2x then that camera is actually being used. Photo and Video does not seem to use that camera, even using the slider for me.

Edit: Using a couple different camera apps (Lightroom and Slowshutter) both use the bottom camera as the telephoto, so it appears to be a bug in the Camera app.
 
Same thing on mine, the bottom is meant to be telephoto as you say but mine also does nothing.

1CiYZ96.jpg
 
1Zach1 said:
Strange, mine does the same. If I switch over to Time-Lapse or Portrait in 2x then that camera is actually being used. Photo and Video does not seem to use that camera, even using the slider for me.

Edit: Using a couple different camera apps (Lightroom and Slowshutter) both use the bottom camera as the telephoto, so it appears to be a bug in the Camera app.
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I found sliding past the 2x then back it is activated.
 
I just tried going beyond 2x and back and the telephoto camera doesn't get activated for me
 
It's not a bug, it always worked like this. Even if you select 2x the camera app will pick the lens depending on the focus distance. Since you're covering up the tele lens it's trying to focus close (and it can't) and is thus picking the standard lens.
 
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The camera is smart. If you cover the telephoto lens with a finger, it will recognize that there is no image and revert to the normal lens.
 
I pointed it out the windows with all lenses uncovered and it still doesn't select the telephoto lens
 
tomislavf said:
It's not a bug, it always worked like this. Even if you select 2x the camera app will pick the lens depending on the focus distance. Since you're covering up the tele lens it's trying to focus close (and it can't) and is thus picking the standard lens.
Click to expand...
This does appear to be the case. Cover the bottom lens and point the camera at a distant object and the lower lens kicks in.
 
chabig said:
The camera is smart. If you cover the telephoto lens with a finger, it will recognize that there is no image and revert to the normal lens.
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This doesn't make any sense. If I select 2x, and cover up the regular camera, it stays blocked out. That shouldn't happen if it's selecting the correct camera as 2x.
 
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1Zach1 said:
This doesn't make any sense. If I select 2x, and cover up the regular camera, it stays blocked out. That shouldn't happen if it's selecting the correct camera as 2x.
Click to expand...
I got it now. If I point my phone out of my office window to the horizon and select telephoto, it will focus. If I then cover the wide camera the highlights blow out (I'm assuming it meters off this camera?) and eventually switches back to the wide camera to show my finger covering it. If I cover the telephoto camera instead of the wide, it goes black (but doesn't switch).

Edit: But that does mean that if you switch to telephoto for something close up, you're not getting optical zoom, but digital, which is pretty questionable.
 
Try switching to it AND THEN covering the lens. On mine it switches to it and then I can block it. If I block it before switching, the lens won’t activate.

it senses how close the subject is. If an object is too close, like your finger, it won’t work.
 
cannono said:
Try switching to it AND THEN covering the lens. On mine it switches to it and then I can block it. If I block it before switching, the lens won’t activate.

it senses how close the subject is. If an object is too close, like your finger, it won’t work.
Click to expand...

Seems like a very poor design. Instead of just warning you to move your finger it lets you take poor quality digital zoom pictures and potentially ruin a photo shoot.
 
Ha, ha, the camera is smarter than the user and compensates for the lens being blocked. They never expected that someone would try to block the lens on purpose...
 
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Givmeabrek said:
Ha, ha, the camera is smarter than the user and compensates for the lens being blocked. They never expected that someone would try to block the lens on purpose...
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I just wish it were smart enough to tell me that it was using digital zoom and not optical. If I could turn off all digital zoom I would, maybe that would force the telephoto camera to be used when I ask for it. Just another reason to use a third party app I suppose.

And if it were really all that smart, it wouldn't keep trying to look through my finger of the wide camera when I'm asking for the telephoto camera.
 
1Zach1 said:
I got it now. If I point my phone out of my office window to the horizon and select telephoto, it will focus. If I then cover the wide camera the highlights blow out (I'm assuming it meters off this camera?) and eventually switches back to the wide camera to show my finger covering it. If I cover the telephoto camera instead of the wide, it goes black (but doesn't switch).

Edit: But that does mean that if you switch to telephoto for something close up, you're not getting optical zoom, but digital, which is pretty questionable.
Click to expand...
That’s right the focal distance of the telephoto lens means close objects are actually the wide angle lens with digital zoom. I’ve not tested it to find the exact distance it occurs.
 
BeeGood said:
It works for me also; I’m wondering if I’m misunderstanding the problem?

I covered the bottom lens and switched to 2X. I also switched to 2X then covered the bottom lens. Both times it was blocked out.
Click to expand...
Point your camera at something on your desk/next to you/near you, switch to 2x. Cover the top camera. Does it block out the camera?
 
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