# How good are / what's the point of cell phone macro cameras

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-whats-the-point-of-cell-phone-macro-cameras/951134>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 22, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-whats-the-point-of-cell-phone-macro-cameras/951134 "2021-09-22T20:01:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-whats-the-point-of-cell-phone-macro-cameras/951134/41 "2023-06-04T22:14:49Z")

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As of today I now have a camera with a “macro lens”. One of [these](https://www.amazon.com/Stylus-Unlocked-Motorola-512GB-Camera/dp/B09WCNQVZS/), it has a 50 MP main sensor and an 8 MP that doubles as an ultrawide and as a macro lens. The “macro lens” is basically pointless. Both lenses have very close to the same minimum focus distance and the cropped closeups from the main sensor look better than anything from the “macro”. The images obviously aren’t stacked DLSR macro lens composite quality, but they are decent enough for a phone that costs a fraction of the price. (The snail is around a third of an inch.)

[![](https://i.postimg.cc/85c84hJ2/Snail-20230604-145123695-cropped.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/85c84hJ2/Snail-20230604-145123695-cropped.jpg)

> **[Album — Postimages](https://postimg.cc/gallery/wMPWmQ9)**

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-whats-the-point-of-cell-phone-macro-cameras/951134/42 "2023-06-05T12:38:17Z")

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> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> It’s the same as with shooting with any lens and altering your distance-to-subject. Take a photo with a 50, then walk back 50 feet and take another photo, and crop down. The latter photo will appear to have “compressed” the distance of the foreground vs the background…

And if you do this with video, and move and zoom simultaneously to keep the primary subject the same size, you get the “Hitchcock zoom”, AKA “dolly zoom”, used most famously in Vertigo and more recently in Lord of the Rings.

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