When Apple introduced the first three-camera iPhone, the iPhone 11 Pro, it could have chosen to position the cameras vertically, like the Huawei P30 Pro, or horizontally, like the Galaxy S10.
But no, Apple opted for a triangle. And it’s not an arbitrary decision.
Did you notice that the iPhone has the ability to switch from one lens to another without even noticing the change? This video shows that clearly.
This would not have been possible if the arrangement of the cameras on the iPhone didn’t form a triangle. In a triangle, the distance between the cameras is minimal and, moreover, it is the same. So no matter which camera you switch to, there will be as little change in composition as possible.
This means you get less abrupt transitions in photo and video modes. Of course, Apple also did some magic with the software to make the transition really smooth.
The same doesn’t happen with smartphones where the cameras are positioned horizontally or vertically, like the Google Pixel 6 Pro.
The Pixel 6 Pro’s far left camera is the main one. Then there’s the ultra-wide-angle camera in the center and the 4X periscope zoom lens on the far right. As you can see in this video, this causes a noticeable change in image composition when changing lenses.
You might be wondering how changing lenses is handled on a phone with more cameras and more focal lengths to use. Samsung has the perfect example with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which comes with ultra-wide, main, 3X and 10X cameras.
If Samsung had followed the Pixel 6 Pro path, it would have created even greater disparities than Google’s phone, as now, when switching from the ultra-wide camera to the 3X or 10X, the field of view would have been shifted to the extreme .
Obviously, you can’t form a triangle with four cameras, so Samsung borrowed Huawei’s P40 Pro+ camera layout.
Samsung found a compromise by placing the 3X camera off-axis, next to the main camera, which sits between the ultra-wide and the 10X periscopic camera. This way the cameras create an irregular shape, but if the Galaxy is disassembled, we would notice that Samsung managed to form two smaller triangles.