Macro photography is more popular than we expected — in last week’s poll, more than half of voters expressed interest in it, even though only a fraction own a phone that’s really good at taking macro photos.
As we pointed out in that article, it’s still common for ultra-wide-angle camera modules to feature fixed-focus lenses. Manufacturers seem happy to put a basic 2MP macro module on most phones instead of paying for an ultra-wide lens.
Looking at the poll results, the number of people who are interested in macro photography but don’t have a proper phone, because that’s more than the number of people who are not at all interested in this style of photography. For manufacturers, this seems like a missed opportunity.
We have a follow-up question – which camera should be responsible for the macro mode? Most phones either have a dedicated module or use an ultra-wide-angle camera. But some people use telephoto lenses.
This has the advantage of keeping a distance. As some reviewers have pointed out, it’s sometimes simply impossible to push the phone a few centimeters away from the subject.
Even so, most people still think that an ultra-wide-angle camera is the right camera for the job. There are some proponents of a dedicated macro lens, but most feel that one of the other modules should do double duty.
Macro photography is a surprisingly popular genre – it adds variety by allowing people to capture images that normal cameras can’t. Manufacturers should now make autofocus a standard feature on ultrawide cameras.
