“A birdie of a birdie” tells a famed tech blogger that Apple is on track to giving the next generation iPhone its biggest camera upgrade ever, using a two-lens system bringing the image quality close to the DSLR realm.

Daring Fireball author John Gruber hosts a podcast called The Talk Show. In the latest episode, Gruber touched on a long list of technology-focused topics, including Apple’s recent affinity for a new camera technology that it plans to embed in the next generation of iPhones.

Two-lens system for DSLR-like results

According to Gruber, he got the intel from “a birdie of a birdie,” suggesting that this is mere industry chatter and that it’s not set in stone. Nevertheless, when the blogger opens his mouth about Apple, 99 percent of the time it’s accurate. Given his laudable track record, we feel confident sharing this little nugget of information with you.

So here’s what Gruber had to say about Apple’s forthcoming plans with the iPhone’s camera:

“The specific thing I heard is that next year’s camera might be the biggest camera jump ever. I don't even know what sense this makes, but I've heard that it's some kind of weird two-lens system where the back camera uses two lenses and it somehow takes it up into DSLR quality imagery.”

Optics over pixels

Apple’s modus operandi has always been to improve the optics first and the imaging sensor later. The company believes that the lens quality and the aperture are more important than the receiving end of the camera module, namely the sensor catching the information fed through the elements that come before it.

As such, Apple prefers to make do with better light-catching parts, rather than use an imaging sensor with denser-packed pixels.

It’s worked well for the tech giant so far, but the iPhone 6 – Apple’s flagship phone – is already being given a run for its money. Apple knows this and apparently wants to catch up with the competition before the media hops on the “innovation” bandwagon.

Could it fix the protruding camera?

One thing that springs to mind whenever we think of the iPhone 6 and its camera is that, unlike the past generations, this time the camera doesn’t flush with the design. Instead, it sticks out like it’s been added after the design was finalized.

Needless to point out, this is hardly ideal from a design standpoint. However, it was also a compromise that the company had to make in order to further improve the optics. Something tells us that Apple’s plans for the next iPhone include a design that keeps the camera module on par with the entire phone.