Everything happens for a reason and this is why the camera lens is round and the photo is rectangular/square!
When looking at camera lenses on cameras or on smartphones, what are their shapes? Round, yes. However, the photo taken is rectangular/square. Have you ever wondered about this strange thing?
In fact, everything is quite simple because unlike many people’s misconceptions, lenses do not directly create images. Instead, the lens works with another important part of the camera/smartphone to create the image.
In older cameras, this component is the film, while in digital/smartphone cameras, this part is the image sensor.
The lens is not the part that directly creates the image, it works closely with the sensor on digital devices to do this.
When light is reflected back from the subject you are photographing, the light enters the camera lens and the lens’s job is to “bend” the light and focus it on the film or image sensor.
The first camera manufacturers figured out that a circular lens could do the most efficient gathering of light onto film, and so the round shape was chosen.
So if the camera lens is round, why are the films rectangular? Try to think of all the images you see, whether photographs, paintings or posters, most of them are rectangular or square.
The reason for this is very simple, square or rectangular shape makes it easier to create picture frames, besides this block also makes it easier for pictures and photos to be hung on walls with the same shape.
The rectangle is the most suitable size of the films in a film.
Also, if you’ve ever seen a roll of film, you probably know how it works every time an image is taken. Therefore, a series of rolled rectangular films is easier and more efficient than oval or any other shape.
Similarly, digital cameras and smartphones also follow this “style”. Besides, using a rectangular sensor is also said to bring better images.
A circular lens can produce a circular image inside the camera. However, the outer edges of this circular image may be more prone to distortion than those deep in the center.
This is the result of light being bent more to reach the edge. Therefore, for better image quality, the rectangular sensors have cut off the edges of the image recorded from the circular lens.
Or to put it simply, it will retain the best part of the image captured from the lens.
Technology is truly amazing!