Two new 2021 flagships show that macrophotography is here, and it’s here to stay.
First they came without a camera. Then they came with a camera. Then secondary and tertiary cameras started popping up, sporting ultra-wide or telephoto lenses, or with auxiliary depth sensors, all in the name of helping your smartphone take better pictures. And now, at the beginning of 2021, it seems a new kind of photography mode for smartphones might be all the rage. The Xiaomi Mi 11, launched in February 2021, and the Oppo Find X3 Pro, shown off the month after, both have notable macro-photography modes, using bespoke hardware and smart software to take such photos. These aren’t just extra modes thrown in to bulk out a feature list, but complicated modes that marry hardware and software. ‘Macro’ in the photographic sense refers to close-ups, usually of small things, so macro photography consists of taking pictures of often tiny subjects, and capturing those images in loads of detail. Using this kind of photography you can really appreciate the details in the world around you, whether that’s in your food, or clothes, or technology. Some smartphones have had macro modes before, though never great ones, but the fact Xiaomi and Oppo have both developed brand-new macro systems suggests it could be becoming a new trend. There’s a short history of macro cameras on smartphones, but it’s a pretty sorry one. Quite a few budget phones come with 2MP depth-sensing and 2MP macro cameras, a duo that’s become synonymous with ‘cheap phones’. We’ve rarely found these macro cameras are actually good for taking macro photos, though, as they don’t do anything the main camera doesn’t – instead, the inclusion of this duo often seems more a ploy to flesh out a phone’s specs list.
