how do phone cameras work Page 56

Your phone camera is a tiny dark room with delusions of grandeur: a stack of lenses funnels light onto a sensor about the size of a postage stamp. Each photosite counts incoming photons through a colour filter array (usually Bayer), and the image signal processor demosaics them into full-colour pixels. Then computational trickery takes over: multi‑frame stacking, HDR, and noise reduction fuse rapid bursts into one cleaner, sharper shot. Autofocus (phase detect or laser), plus optical or electronic stabilisation, tries to stop your wobbly hands from turning art into abstract. In low light it bins pixels, stretches exposure, and lets algorithms guess detail you didn’t really capture. The punchy look comes from tone mapping and colour science—less magic, more ruthless maths in your pocket.