Why YSK: I’ve been seeing an increasing number of phone photos shared online in 9:16, 9:21 or similarly tall aspect ratios, often with parts of the subject cut off. I’ve asked a few people why they cropped their images that way, and none of them knew they were cropped.
Also, the digital zoom just crops as well, so take the shot and then crop it, rather than try to aim a tight zoom.
Also true, though phones with multiple cameras often combine the UI for that cropping with switching cameras rather than having an explicit control to select a camera.
Eh, this one’s not as accurate anymore, most phones have digital enhancement that improves the photo when you zoom in. This digital enhancement is not done if your subject is really small in the photo. For stuff thats actually far away zooming is better, if you’re just framing a shot then yeah crop it later.
When “zooming” in the view finder the phone can adjust exposure and processing to what’s just in the frame, so it’s not quite the same as cropping in after the shot. So you might end up with a better shot with zooming first. Resolution wise it’s the same though.
Some of the newer cameras will use multiple exposures to get more data when zoomed in. Obviously this is not as good as having a physical zoom but it can be surprisingly good compared to just cropping. Computational photography is rad.