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User profile for user: Alperto
Alperto Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

iPhone XS telephoto lens not being used

I own an iPhone XS and I did this test (please, if you have one, follow along and tell me if it happens to you too):


- Open Camera app (the native one, of course)

- Cover the telephoto lens (the lower one) with a paper or your finger.

- Tap on "1x" button to change it to "2x" (it should change from one lens to the other).


When I do it, I still can see. It seems like the lower lens is never used and only the top lens is used for all the photos. If I do the opposite: cover the top lens, I see nothing, no matter if I change from 1x to 2x zoom


Am I crazy or is something weird going on here? Does this happens only to me?


Of course, I'm using the last iOS update (14.4.1)

iPhone XS

Posted on Mar 11, 2021 4:37 AM

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User profile for user: Alperto
Alperto Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Posted on Mar 17, 2021 3:28 AM

OK, I answer it myself after my finding: The camera works fine, and it's actually impressive what it does, let me explain:


  • When the telephoto is chosen but there's low light, the digital zoom is chosen to reduce noise, so the real telephoto lens is not used because it requires more light to make a good photo.
  • When there's good light and focal point (the target to focus the picture on) is far away, the real telephoto lens is used.
  • When there's good light but the focal point is very close to the phone, the digital zoom is used, because the telephoto lens can't focus so close (typical in any kind of camera on the market, they are meant for long distance photos). Instead of producing a blurred picture, the system is smart to use the wide angle lens, focus on the target and produce a clean focused picture.


I'm surprised by how well thought and seamlessly it works. It's almost impossible to notice any difference unless you cover the lens or read the metadata of the picture afterwards.

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User profile for user: Alperto
Alperto Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Mar 17, 2021 3:28 AM in response to Alperto

OK, I answer it myself after my finding: The camera works fine, and it's actually impressive what it does, let me explain:


  • When the telephoto is chosen but there's low light, the digital zoom is chosen to reduce noise, so the real telephoto lens is not used because it requires more light to make a good photo.
  • When there's good light and focal point (the target to focus the picture on) is far away, the real telephoto lens is used.
  • When there's good light but the focal point is very close to the phone, the digital zoom is used, because the telephoto lens can't focus so close (typical in any kind of camera on the market, they are meant for long distance photos). Instead of producing a blurred picture, the system is smart to use the wide angle lens, focus on the target and produce a clean focused picture.


I'm surprised by how well thought and seamlessly it works. It's almost impossible to notice any difference unless you cover the lens or read the metadata of the picture afterwards.

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iPhone XS telephoto lens not being used

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