There are a lot of ways that vibrations can ruin your phone or Android camera. Here are five of the most common ways:
- When you hold your phone or Android device up to your ear, you can hear the vibrations. This can cause the phone to make weird noises and even start to shake.
- If you drop your phone, it may fall and hit something hard, such as a door handle or countertop. This could cause the phone to vibrate so loudly that you can’t hear it ringing, and it might also damage the screen or other components.
- If you use your phone in a place with high levels of noise, such as an airport or train station, the vibrations might be too loud for other people to hear and they might end up damaging the phone or taking it away from you.
- If you have a large head and/or body, there may be enough vibration from using your phone that it causes problems with hearing or balance. This could lead to dizziness, headaches, and even seizures if left unchecked.
It’s easy to make the iPhone the butt of a joke—and Apple didn’t do themselves any favors—but this is a legitimate issue. It all revolves around optical image stabilization (OIS), which is a feature found in many modern smartphones, not just iPhones.
What Is Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)?
Optical image stabilization is a feature that aims to stabilize the camera while you snap a photo or record a video.
A camera with OIS has a tiny internal motor inside that physically moves the elements inside the lens. As your hands slightly move or shake while holding the phone, the motors counteract your motion. This results in a smoother video and less blur in photos.
OIS can make a huge difference in photo and video quality. It’s nearly impossible to hold a phone perfectly still with only your hands. The mechanisms that make this possible inside an iPhone or Android camera are remarkably small and delicate. That’s where the risk of damage from vibrations comes into play.
How Can Vibration Damage a Camera?
Moving parts are what often lead to failures, especially when it comes to gadgets. A smartphone camera with OIS has several small moving parts inside it, and those parts are delicate. Enough stress on those parts can cause them to fail.
The OIS components need to be free to move around to counteract your movements, which means they aren’t permanently affixed in place. So when you strap the phone to something like a motorcycle, the vibrations can literally shake the camera parts. That repeated movement wears on the camera over time.
This is not something most people need to worry too much about. You’re not going to damage the camera by keeping it in your pocket while running. The vibrations to worry about are from high-power, high-volume engines, like the aforementioned motorcycles.
What Can I Do to Avoid Damage?
The main thing to avoid is extended exposure to these high-amplitude vibrations. Strapping your iPhone or Android device to a motorcycle for a short trip once in a while is probably fine. If you’re doing it twice a day for your 30-minute commute, that’s a bigger risk.
Apple recommends using a “vibration dampening mount” if you need to strap your phone to a motorcycle or other high-power vehicle. “Quad Lock” is one brand that offers a vibration dampener accessory for their line of mounts.
At the end of the day, this is just not something most people need to be too concerned about, but it is good to know why it happens. Fancy technology is not without its downsides. You’ll think a little differently about image stabilization now.
RELATED: When Should You Use Image Stabilization When You’re Taking Photos?
