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> why not put the camera in the middle of the phone? This is one of those things that doesn't seem like it should matter, but it does. If the lens is mounted i
by snowwrestler 2y ago
> why not put the camera in the middle of the phone?
This is one of those things that doesn't seem like it should matter, but it does. If the lens is mounted in the exact center of the body, the images come out looking unbalanced. To produce balanced images, you have to offset the lens. Even very expensive pro mirrorless bodies are offset; that is, if you look directly down the center of the lens, you'll notice there is more camera body sticking out on one side than the other.
This is called the chirality of the optical path and it is surprisingly difficult to predict analytically. Companies will typically design the optical path, prototype it, and mount it on a jig to precisely measure the chirality. From this, they design the body with the proper offset.
Chirality is more noticeable the smaller the sensor and the shorter the lens. So on smart phones, which put tiny sensors behind wide-angle lenses, they have to get the offset just right. This explains why the lenses are in slightly different places on the body every time Apple updates their cameras.
- nakedrobot2 2y agoWhat on earth did I just read? Is this ai slop that I just read? None of this is correct or true.
- jval43 2y agoYour comment makes no sense. Every mirrorless body has a center marking for the middle of the sensor, so the camera can be mounted exactly centered on a tripod. It's actually important for photos to be exactly on axis if you want to do panoramas or stitching. The only reason the body is not exactly symmetrical is engineering and ergonomics. Many point and shoots of the past in fact had the lens exactly in the center. And "chirality of the optical path" is not anything related to this, in fact the term is not usable in this context at all.
- Toutouxc 2y agoI vouched for this comment just so I could reply to it. The entire thing is so fascinatingly, unbelievably, OBVIOUSLY, violently incorrect in every single way, yet it doesn’t feel like straight GPT output. It was also posted by a person with a huge karma. I want to understand what happened.
- snowwrestler 2y agoThanks for vouching. I guess I figured people would realize I was joking based on how ridiculous it was.
- Toutouxc 2y agoThat... didn't occur to me at all. Nowadays stuff like this usually a LLM running amok. :( Sorry about that.
- snowwrestler 2y agoAn LLM running amok is probably not a bad description of me after a couple of drinks, actually.
- brookst 2y agoIt was a good joke, but sadly our world has gotten so strange that it fits right in with many 100% earnest comments. Either that or the world is mired in full of jokers than I realized.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rob_c 2y agoWhat the actual f•©k?