1. An imaging apparatus housed at least partially within a mobile device housing, and configured for multiple image acquisition modes, the imaging apparatus comprising: an image sensor comprising an imaging surface; a first optical assembly positioned over a first image capture region of the imaging surface, and defining a first field of view, said first image capture region of the imaging surface including a first set of image sensor pixels therewithin, wherein the first optical assembly images onto the first image capture region, any object plane within the first field of view; and a second optical assembly positioned over a second image capture region of the imaging surface, and defining a second field of view, said second image capture region of the imaging surface including a second set of image sensor pixels therewithin, wherein the second optical assembly images onto the second image capture region, any object plane within the second field of view, and wherein the first and second image capture regions are mutually distinguishable regions on the imaging surface; a processor configured to: respond to detection of a first trigger event that has been defined to trigger a first image capture mode, by performing an image display on a display screen, wherein performing the image display on the display screen comprises: parsing image data from the first set of image sensor pixels; and rendering an image on the display screen, wherein the rendered image is based on the image data parsed from the first set of image sensor pixels; and respond to detection of a second trigger event that has been defined to trigger a second image capture mode, by performing iris based biometric authentication, wherein performing said iris based biometric authentication comprises: extracting iris information from image data parsed from the second set of image sensor pixels; comparing the extracted iris information with stored iris information corresponding to at least one iris; and rendering one of a match decision or a non-match decision based on an output of said comparison.