Phone cameras are incredible little machines, capable of way more than their tiny lenses and sensors would lead you to believe. They can capture core memories at the beach and northern lights in the sky. But even with all of their computational smarts, they have their limits, including one that’s particularly obvious at the moment. You know all those clear, high-quality pictures you’ve seen of the drones hovering over New Jersey at night? No? Exactly.

You are probably aware by now that there are drones of mysterious origins visiting the New Jersey skies at night. And if you’ve watched or read a report on the drone situation, you’ve probably seen a grainy photo of distant lights in the sky, maybe with blurred trails from red and green navigation lights. You know the type, because they all basically look the same. But this isn’t happening in some remote part of the country, this is a seemingly nightly occurrence in one of the most densely populated parts of the country. And considering that everyone has a camera in their pocket, why is every photo of these drones so bad?

I had my suspicions, but I asked Sten Odenwald,…

Read the full story at The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/18/24324347/new-jersey-drones-photos-phone-camera