Why does Apple think three lenses are eight lenses?

"The super-thin iPhone Air only has one camera on its rear: a 48-megapixel sensor with a 26mm-equivalent f/1.6 lens. It's the same as the main camera of the regular iPhone 17 (which also features a second 0.5x ultrawide camera). The 17 Pro and Pro Max have a similar-but-not-the-same main camera, consisting of a 48MP sensor and 24mm-equivalent f/1.78 lens - and it also has the ultrawide and adds a 4x telephoto lens."

"Apple showed a slide of sample images indicating that the iPhone Air's one rear sensor and lens can be used as 26mm, 28mm, 35mm, and 52mm-equivalent lenses. According to Apple's technical specifications of the iPhone Air, once you zoom to the 52mm-equivalent focal length (a 2x magnification), you're down to 12MP of resolution. The 28mm and 35mm "lenses" are likely similar to what we first saw in the iPhone 15 Pro, which works like this: A 28mm image yields a 24MP photo, constructed from a series of 12MP frames and combined with one 48MP frame"

iPhone Air has a single 48-megapixel rear sensor paired with a 26mm-equivalent f/1.6 lens and can produce 26mm, 28mm, 35mm, and 52mm-equivalent images. At 2x (52mm-equivalent) magnification the output falls to 12MP. The 28mm mode yields a 24MP image constructed from several 12MP frames combined with one 48MP frame. The 35mm mode produces a 24MP image by using only the center pixels of the 48MP sensor. iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max use a 48MP main sensor with a 24mm-equivalent f/1.78 lens, plus an ultrawide and a 4x telephoto. Apple markets the 17 Pro's three physical lenses as equivalent to eight “pro lenses” by including computationally derived focal-length outputs and the additional sensors, and Apple did not clarify the exact enumeration when asked.

Read at The Verge