I wish Pixel 10 Pro skipped the 1x camera completely for two zoom lenses

Over the past few years, I have taken an average of 4-5,000 photos with my pixel phones each year, from random foods and moments to beautiful landscapes, beautiful views of the street, sports events, concerts and more. I would say that I qualify as a mobile photography at this time, although “drug addicts” may be the more accurate word. But if there is a thought that continues to show up time and time again when I take my pixel out of my pocket to snap pictures, it is that I rarely, very rarely use the most important “1x” lens.

The best lens of the phone is the one I use the least

The main lens at Best camera phones With the highest megapixel number, the largest aperture and most features are actually very wide. On 1x, most phones have a lens equivalent to a 26-28 mm lens on a DSLR camera, a good focal if you want to catch almost all your vision lets you see. However, many photographers prefer 50 mm lenses (almost equivalent to 2x on modern phones) because of their zoomed-in-perspective, which is closer to what we humans see when we focus on something.

I notice this a lot in my pictures too. If I see a topic and think, “Oh, it will be a nice picture,” I will often be surprised when I open the phone’s camera because of all the “fluff” around my subject, which I had not noticed with my own eyes and is now visible on the screen and part of my image. Passersby on a street, heads that pee from the crowds at a concert or sporting event, floor, roof, root, too much sky, too much reason, for many distractions … It is tough to take a great 1x shot; It is much easier to zoom in to 2x, cut the noise and focus on some. Just as my eyes had originally seen the subject.

It is really an art to make good 25 mm shots on a camera, but unfortunately, in everyday life, there are only so many visual distractions that prevent me from achieving it. Real life is not perfect, and I don’t have time to wait for it to be. I can’t sweep away the mess, wait hours for people to move to catch the perfect crowdless moment at an attraction, or hope for a moment of silence to grab the perfect shot.

This is why I gravitate to 50 mm focal length – or 2x on my phone. It is much easier to snap a good 2x shot because of the freedom to frame my image, but I want, with less visual root, and without waiting for a perfect opportunity that may never come. Check these 1x vs 2x shots below: In any of the 1x shots, I couldn’t avoid the crowds; In others, I waited for the perfect moment; And in others, I only have a lot of boring accessories around the main topic of the image. In comparison, the 2X shot was easier to snap and always more focused.

Even when I just take a picture of a document, I just want to put my hands further to avoid the shadows, zoom to 2x and snap it. That is: Under the most controlled situation and with a steady subject that does not move, I still rarely use the 1x lens on my phone. And it is the one that Google, Samsung and all other companies are designated as the flagship!

Besides, if I really want a wide-angle shot of a fantastic landscape, or if I try to create a sense of immense in my shot, I certainly want to privileges the Ultrawide lens, not the most important. Anything from 0.5x to 0.7x is bound to give me the consecutive skewed perspective I want. In addition, the visual distortion will almost certainly be more interesting to look at than a flat 1x shot.

It is too late in the phone’s development cycle to want bigger changes, but a girl can dream. Instead of one 5X zoom lens, I want to see two zoom lenses on Google’s next flagship – maybe 11 pro? The first would be a good 5x periscope, similar to what I have used on Pixel 7 Pro, 8 Pro and 9 Pro for several years – even though I did not mind an upgraded sensor that can handle better zoom and less quality degradation after 10 times. The OnePlus 13s Zoom Powers Let me be a little jealous, especially to know that OnePlus was able to pull out all this from a 3x lens!

In my ideal setup, the second lens, the one that replaces the main camera, would be a 48MP 2x telecommunications producing that can extrapolate up to 4x zoom, quasi-loss-free. There would certainly be some loss at the edge between 4x and 5x, but it is a small price to pay for everything else. The obvious benefit would be to have high quality 2x, 3x and 4x images zooms if I want to use the most when I pull out Pixel 9 Pro. The problem is that right now 2x is the only reliable level, and I sacrifice the pixel -binning advantage of my main lens when I use it. 3X is a level I rarely try, and 4x is questionable and depends on too much digital pruning and sorcery that I almost never use it.

A base 48MP 2x tele would make all these shots more reliable and open to a new world of creativity to me. 12MP 2x shots would be the pixelbinn with less noise and more clarity; They will be perfect for portraits of people and pets, more intimate and higher quality than we now get with Pixel 9 Pros main lens. Meanwhile, 12MP 3x and 4x shots would not have to resort to digital zoom; They will be cropped, loss -free, straight out of the 48MP sensor.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of times in recent years I caught myself and thought, “Gah, 2x is too long, 5x is too close!” That’s the advantage of having better 2x, 3x and 4x zoom would be most sensible to me – when I want to zoom in more than 2x, but not exactly to 5x. It is the creative area that is now outside the boundaries for me, which would suddenly be achievable. I can’t tell you what I wanted to try, but once I have the freedom to click on the 3x or 4x button in my camera app, knowing that I don’t want to sacrifice quality or details, I’m sure I will start using it much more often.

Where does the main lens leave and 25 mm shoots? Well, it is the void that a good ultrawide lens had to fill. See, if Google can digitally crop a good 12MP zoomed 2x image of a 50MP 1x lens, then it should be able to just as well, crop a good 12MP 1x out of a 50mp 0.5x ultrawide.

I have done some homework to test out my theory. On Pixel 9 Pro, I can force the phone to use a particular lens (Photo Settings> Pro> Lens Selection Manual). So I picked the Ultrawide lens and zoomed in to 1x. You can see the results below.

At first glance, it may seem that there is no fall in quality, but zoom in to a 100% crop, and you will notice that the Ultrawide lens does not offer as much detail or clarity as the main sensor. It is like a brushed watercolor in some places, with broken darkness and less impressive HDR.

But again, Google has not optimized the Ultrawide sensor for 1x shots, so there is no reason to expect them to be good. They are usable as it is, but I bet that with a little optimization they would get closer and closer to what we get with the main camera now. In that case, this will be a victim I am willing to do in exchange for better images in the zoom range 2x-4x.

Or, you know, I could just as well do away with the Ultrawide lens completely and keep the main 1x sensor with two zoom lenses. I want to use fancy new panorama mode to create a greater sense of perspective. There are always solutions.

So yes, what I preach and hope for is a world where the wider camera lenses become secondary, and the 2x lens takes the crown as the most important camera. I know I’m crazy, but I’m not alone. This is a sentiment more of mine Android Authority Colleagues have shared in recent times. We just love zoom, we want more versatile zoom, and if a fourth lens is not an option on a pixel for budgetary reasons, then by all means, remove the wide camera and give us two zoom lenses instead. We wanted to settle for a cropped 1x shot when needed and we would be happy.