It's been a while since cell phones stopped making calls. The cameras have been on these devices for more than ten years and the evolution of these devices is remarkable.
Every year manufacturers launch new smartphones with more powerful cameras, with greater resolution capacity, different capture modes, etc. But what, in fact, determines whether a camera is good or not?
One of the major factors that interferes with the quality of the captured images is the "lens opening" of the camera. You may have seen here that when we report a new smartphone and relate the specifications, there is usually an "f" followed by a number in the camera details. This "f" is the indication of the lens opening.
This opening is the channel through which the light passes through the lens. It works proportionally to the size, i.e., the larger the opening, the more light.
Oh, so you just pick a smartphone that has a big number on the side of the f, right? Wrong. The larger the number indicated in the specifications, the smaller the opening. I know, it's confusing.

The opening directly influences some camera functions, such as capture speed, for example. The smaller the opening, the longer it takes the camera to capture enough light to record. In a wider opening, the amount of light is greater, making the camera not have to wait to register the photo. This is an important point for those who like to make moving catches.

The focus is also affected by the lens opening. The larger the opening, the smaller the focus area. This results in shallower depth images, slightly blurring the bottom of what is in focus. The smaller the opening, the greater the depth and the greater the focus area. Images captured with these lenses tend to blur completely what is not in their focus area.

Logically there are many factors to be taken into consideration for a good photograph, but the opening of the smartphone lens makes a good difference. Combined with the ideal hardware, you can make excellent photos. But make no mistake, smartphones cameras are still far from being compared with professional cameras and only serve to record everyday moments.
In the next post we will explain the difference of megapixels in your photos.