Do smartphone camera lenses have special coatings or filters, and why can phone photos look more vivid than DSLR shots?
Asked 8/11/2013
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I’m curious what optical coatings or built-in filters phone cameras use. My iPhone sometimes gives me more vivid photos of skies, clouds, and beaches than my DSLR unless I adjust exposure or use filters like a polarizer or ND. Do mobile camera lenses have special coatings or filters that cause this, or is something else responsible?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The lens elements will have anti-reflective coatings, as all modern lenses do. There may or may not be an IR filter over the sensor, certainly many early camera phones didn't bother with IR filters (using the camera you could see IR LEDs such as the ones found in the wii sensor bar). Apparently Apple only introduced an IR filter in the iPhone 4S and later models.
The lack of an IR filter might actually improve your skies as there is less IR and move UV in the sky, so you ought to get slightly darker skies provided the metering picks up IR.
There may be a UV filter built in (though this is very unlikely if there's not even an IR filter), there certainly wont be a polarizing filter. The differences you observe are likely to do with the JPEG engine on camera phones which will be optimised to produce contrasty images with rich colour saturation, whereas DSLRs aim to produce more accurate, natural colours.
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Phone camera lenses usually do have standard anti-reflective coatings, like most modern lenses. They may also have sensor-side filters such as an IR-cut filter, although some early camera phones reportedly lacked one. A built-in polarizing filter is very unlikely, and that’s not what’s making your phone images look more dramatic.
The bigger reason is image processing. Phones typically apply strong JPEG processing tuned to look pleasing right away, especially boosting contrast, saturation, and overall punch. That can make skies, clouds, and beach scenes look richer than a DSLR’s default output.
So the difference you’re seeing is probably not from exotic lens coatings, but from the phone’s processing choices. To get a similar look from a DSLR, try increasing picture style contrast and saturation, and remember that filters like a polarizer still do something software cannot fully replace.
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