Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Have you noticed a lot of things look different now? Even your own pictures seem to have a different... Look to them. This is my explanation for what has changed, and why. The pictures will look the same, but you might not see them in the same way again.
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Overview of camera mechanics
02:05 How smartphone cameras changed
03:53 Reasons why: Technology
05:24 Reasons why: Culture and history
07:03 Synthesis: Cultural technologies
08:03 Cats
09:07 Conclusion
Correction: In the video I said that the look of an image is determined by the distance between the lens and the sensor. Some commenters have said this is a shortcut that is misleading and I agree. The point is quite subtle. The lens itself fully determines the look of the image, and has an intrinsic focal length. The sensor is placed at a distance equal to the focal length so that the image will be in focus. So even though the distance between lens and sensor is equal to the focal length and does correspond to the look of an image, it is not appropriate to say casually that the distance creates the look of the image. The lens creates the look of the image, the placement of the sensor merely puts it in focus.
Biblography
Bate, David. 2018. “Camera Phones and Mobile Intimacies.” In The Evolution of the Image, 14–26. Routledge. researchgate.net/profile/David-Bate-5/publication/345566650_Camera_Phones_and_Mobile_Intimacies/links/65840c3e0bb2c7472bfbf1b1/Camera-Phones-and-Mobile-Intimacies.pdf.
Blahnik, Vladan, and Oliver Schindelbeck. 2021. “Smartphone Imaging Technology and Its Applications.” Advanced Optical Technologies 10 (3): 145–232. doi.org/10.1515/aot-2021-0023.
Bukshpan, Ela. n.d. “The Evolution of Zoom Camera Technologies in Smartphones.”
Chesher, Chris. 2012. Studying Mobile Media: Cultural Technologies, Mobile Communication, and the iPhone. Edited by Larissa Hjorth, Jean Burgess, and Ingrid Richardson. 0 ed. Routledge. doi.org/10.4324/9780203127711.
Fitzpatrick, Joseph, and Bryan Reynolds. 2009. “The Cartographic Impulse: Certeau’s Transversality, Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse, Cusa’s Empiricism, and Google’s New World.” In Transversal Subjects, by Bryan Reynolds, 124–61. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi.org/10.1057/9780230239289_3.
Luhmann, Thomas. 2004. “A Historical Review on Panorama Photogrammetry.” International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 34 (5/W16): 8.
Nedelcu, Marius. 2013. “Expanded Image Spaces. from Panoramic Image to Virtual Reality, through Cinema.” Close Up: Film and Media Studies 1 (1): 44.
Truan, Naomi. 2023. “‘I Am a Real Cat’: French-Speaking Cats on Twitter as an Enregistered Variety and Community of Practice.” Internet Pragmatics 6 (1): 67–106. doi.org/10.1075/ip.00083.tru.
Uricchio, William. 2011. “A ‘Proper Point of View’: The Panorama and Some of Its Early Media Iterations.” Early Popular Visual Culture 9 (3): 225–38. doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2011.601165.
Have you noticed a lot of things look different now? Even your own pictures seem to have a different... Look to them. This is my explanation for what has changed, and why. The pictures will look the same, but you might not see them in the same way again.
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Overview of camera mechanics
02:05 How smartphone cameras changed
03:53 Reasons why: Technology
05:24 Reasons why: Culture and history
07:03 Synthesis: Cultural technologies
08:03 Cats
09:07 Conclusion
Correction: In the video I said that the look of an image is determined by the distance between the lens and the sensor. Some commenters have said this is a shortcut that is misleading and I agree. The point is quite subtle. The lens itself fully determines the look of the image, and has an intrinsic focal length. The sensor is placed at a distance equal to the focal length so that the image will be in focus. So even though the distance between lens and sensor is equal to the focal length and does correspond to the look of an image, it is not appropriate to say casually that the distance creates the look of the image. The lens creates the look of the image, the placement of the sensor merely puts it in focus.
Biblography
Bate, David. 2018. “Camera Phones and Mobile Intimacies.” In The Evolution of the Image, 14–26. Routledge. researchgate.net/profile/David-Bate-5/publication/345566650_Camera_Phones_and_Mobile_Intimacies/links/65840c3e0bb2c7472bfbf1b1/Camera-Phones-and-Mobile-Intimacies.pdf.
Blahnik, Vladan, and Oliver Schindelbeck. 2021. “Smartphone Imaging Technology and Its Applications.” Advanced Optical Technologies 10 (3): 145–232. doi.org/10.1515/aot-2021-0023.
Bukshpan, Ela. n.d. “The Evolution of Zoom Camera Technologies in Smartphones.”
Chesher, Chris. 2012. Studying Mobile Media: Cultural Technologies, Mobile Communication, and the iPhone. Edited by Larissa Hjorth, Jean Burgess, and Ingrid Richardson. 0 ed. Routledge. doi.org/10.4324/9780203127711.
Fitzpatrick, Joseph, and Bryan Reynolds. 2009. “The Cartographic Impulse: Certeau’s Transversality, Foucault’s Panoptic Discourse, Cusa’s Empiricism, and Google’s New World.” In Transversal Subjects, by Bryan Reynolds, 124–61. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi.org/10.1057/9780230239289_3.
Luhmann, Thomas. 2004. “A Historical Review on Panorama Photogrammetry.” International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 34 (5/W16): 8.
Nedelcu, Marius. 2013. “Expanded Image Spaces. from Panoramic Image to Virtual Reality, through Cinema.” Close Up: Film and Media Studies 1 (1): 44.
Truan, Naomi. 2023. “‘I Am a Real Cat’: French-Speaking Cats on Twitter as an Enregistered Variety and Community of Practice.” Internet Pragmatics 6 (1): 67–106. doi.org/10.1075/ip.00083.tru.
Uricchio, William. 2011. “A ‘Proper Point of View’: The Panorama and Some of Its Early Media Iterations.” Early Popular Visual Culture 9 (3): 225–38. doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2011.601165.
