The future of smartphones is in dual-cameras - CNET

While Corephotonics declined to confirm whether its camera technology was used in LG's new G5 and X Cam phones, CNET understands from an LG executive that the technology used in its phones was developed in-house, and doesn't seem to share the same features as those from Corephotonics -- there's no comparable optical zoom.

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So what does it do and how?

It's not the first time that the smartphone industry has tried something with dual cameras on smartphones. In the 3D-everything frenzy a few years back, phones such as the HTC Evo 3D used dual-cameras to take 3D images which could be viewed back on its 3D capable display, but the tech never really took off since it felt gimmicky.

But this is a very different beast. For the very basic model, Corephotonic's tech relies on two cameras, one fixed-focus telephoto with a narrow field of view and a more normal wide angle camera, and combining the images together with algorithms for a better picture. Corephotonics calls this combination a 'computational camera', and claims it offers resolution gains, noise reduction in low light, increased dynamic range and depth analysis. Higher-end modules, such as the new Hawkeye shown above, use a different method, which we'll talk about more in a bit.

And from what I have seen, it works, and it works amazingly. The demos shown by Corephotonics at Mobile World Congress are the same as what we saw two years ago, but clearly smoother and a lot more optimized. Low-light images feature amazing detail and significantly lower noise, something that phone makers have been trying to achieve with using larger sensors in phones.

Corephotonics has three models currently ready for use in phones, the first being a combination of a 13-megapixel and 8-megapixel camera that gives a maximum 3x optical zoom. The second, it's slimmest model, is a combination of two 13-megapixel cameras, though one is black and white only, for better low-light shots. The third, final and new model is a called "Hawkeye" and features two paired 13-megapixel cameras, one's normal and the other with a proprietary technology that folds the light for 5x optical zoom. It's also capable of optical image stabilisation.

While the cameras currently work on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, Corephotonics says it is working to bring the tech to other chipsets, such as Samsung's Exynos and Mediatek's processors. In fact, I'm told that an Exynos solution was very much ready and could be completed any day.

Why this is a game changer

Face it, phones are struggling to excite us anymore. They have mostly the same specs, same cameras, storage size, with the only difference being superficial features on how it looks and perhaps whether it's water-resistant or whether it has a fingerprint sensor. Phones need something new to stand out, and this technology easily satisfies that need.

How many times have you wished that you could get closer to the picture, or how you're too far, or just mad at how terrible the picture looks because you didn't want or couldn't tu on the flash for the shot? This technology fixes that and puts yet another nail in the coffin of the compact point and shoot.

And Android manufacturers aren't the only one who could benefit. There are rumors that Apple's next iPhone 7 will feature a similar technology, having snatched up a different Israeli firm that was working on improving image quality of phone cameras.

There's also a physical limit to how big a sensor you can squeeze into a phone, HTC tried it once with a 4-megapixel shooter that didn't quite work out for them, and while Samsung's new Galaxy S7 features a larger sensor, you still can't zoom in on the image without losing details without an optical zoom. That said, the lowlight performance of the new sensor that Samsung is using looks impressive -- I've seen the demos.

2016 will be dual cameras

If the Apple rumors are true, we will see an iPhone 7 with optical zoom capability and other manufacturers who aren't on the same path will have to shift gears to catch up. Forget VR, forget mobile payment, this is where phones will be this year because its advantages are readily apparent, and avid phone photographers will have something to catch their eye once more.