 Wouldn't it be great if your smartphone had a proper zoom lens? You'd never need a real camera again. Well, not so fast. Even though it sounds inevitable, and we've actually seen examples like Asus' Zenfone Zoom appearance this year, there are way more problems with the idea than you might imagine. Right now smartphones use prime lenses. That means a lens that doesn't zoom, which you think would be a bad thing, but a ton of serious photographers use prime lenses for a whole bunch of reasons. I only brought one camera to CES, Fujifilm's X100T, and it really shows off the advantages of prime lenses. They can be smaller, they're often sharper, and they can let in more light, so they're a lot better in dark situations. And all of these things might be even more important for smartphones than so-called real cameras, because there's much less space to work with. Looking at the Zenfone Zoom specs, it's definitely going to suffer in low light compared to other phones, but there are other non-technical reasons why you may prefer a prime lens on either a pro camera or a phone. Prime lenses force you to think about composition more carefully. You have to move with your feet, get close to your subject. When you shoot with a prime lens, you're spending less time dialing in settings and more time thinking about your shot. That's not to say you don't have any options for expansion with a prime lens. The X100 has a couple of great conversion lenses, for example, and there are tons of adapters for the iPhone. Just this week I've been using Olloclip's new iPhone 6 telephoto lens, which is a neat way to zoom without compromising your phone. Ultimately, as with many things at CES, the zoom lens smartphone is an idea that sounds a lot better in theory than reality. That's all for now.
 Wouldn't it be great if your smartphone had a proper zoom lens?
 You'd never need a real camera again. Well, not so fast.
 Even though it sounds inevitable,
 and we've actually seen examples like Asus' Zenfone Zoom appearance
 this year,
 there are way more problems with the idea than you might imagine.
 Right now smartphones use prime lenses. That means a lens that doesn't zoom,
 which you think would be a bad thing, but a ton of serious photographers use prime
 lenses
 for a whole bunch of reasons. I only brought one camera to CES,
 Fujifilm's X100T, and it really shows off the advantages of prime lenses.
 They can be smaller, they're often sharper, and they can let in more light, so they're a lot
 better in dark situations.
 And all of these things might be even more important for smartphones than
 so-called real cameras, because there's much less space to work with.
 Looking at the Zenfone Zoom specs, it's definitely going to suffer in low light
 compared to other phones,
 but there are other non-technical reasons why you may prefer a prime lens on
 either a pro camera or a phone. Prime lenses force you to think about
 composition more carefully.
 You have to move with your feet, get close to your subject. When you shoot with a prime lens,
 you're spending less time
 dialing in settings and more time thinking about your shot. That's not to say you don't have
 any options for
 expansion with a prime lens. The X100 has a couple of great conversion lenses, for example,
 and there are tons of adapters for the iPhone.
 Just this week I've been using Olloclip's new iPhone 6 telephoto lens, which is a neat way to
 zoom without compromising your phone.
 Ultimately, as with many things at CES, the zoom lens smartphone is an idea that sounds a lot
 better in theory than reality.
 That's all for now.