Periscope-style zoom lenses are the latest big thing in mobile photography as they allow to squeeze longer zoom factors than before into the thin bodies of high-end smartphones. Huawei just launched the P30 Pro with a 5x optical zoom and OPPO's Reno device with a similar setup is set to launch on April 10, 2019.
Despite still being more than a week away from the official launch date, a video has surfaced on the Chinese social media site Weibo, showing a teardown of the Reno's rear camera, including the innovative tele lens, and it's fascinating to see how much technology and optical engineering can fit into such a tiny module.
The periscope camera only measures 23.5 x 11.5 x 5.73mm, making it thin enough to fit into phones without the need for a big camera hump. It also doesn't take up much space in the body overall and therefore does not get into the way of other components.
A close-up of the periscope-style camera array on the Huawei P30 Pro.
The module consists of the image sensor, lenses and the prism that diverts the incoming light into the lens and onto the sensor. Optical image stabilization is achieved through a magnetic coil that moved the prism. Optical image stabilization is also available on the camera's primary wide-angle and image data captured by the two cameras can be combined to generate a 10x hybrid-zoom image.
We also already know that at least one version of the Reno will be powered by Qualcomm's top-end chipset Snapdragon 855-powered and come with a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution. So, overall the upcoming OPPO looks like it could be a real competitor to the P30 Pro.
in the world of cameraphones ... not a single actual zoom lens in any phone anywhere , exists.....but the 3 eyed phone is king , and the 15mm telephoto is a 125 mm ?? fov equiv
i have but one question .... has the world gone mad ... or just the internet?
Put away your MF and FF cameras, This phone boasts a 15.3mm f/3.4 lens ... no that is the tele lens not the SW? Zoom that appears to be a marketing term (Twain may have referred to that as statistics)? If the phone was a Google and had 21mm, 35mm and 55mm equivalent I'd buy it.
I just hope Google's algorithm outputs DNG soon, the JPGs are a bit unpredictable and although they're more malleable than non-HDR JPGs the possible results (with Snapseed) still change drastically with even a slight exposure difference.
I hate camera phones, but this is interesting. I think the future will actually be phone and camera company partnerships that allow the phone to click lock into your camera as a touchscreen tool, Wi-Fi will be automatic, and Google / Facebook, Lightroom online sharing will all be available right there on your proper camera (with a big fat lens and a big fat sensor).
"A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements for which the focal length can be varied, as opposed to a fixed focal length lens."
One would hope a site dedicated to photography would use the correct terminology.
While the vendor may call this a "zoom lens" it's simply a telephoto lens with folded optics. (and depending on how you define "telephoto" the lens may not even be a telephoto lens).
to add the camera function could have called it trifocal ... they might have even jazzed up the reference in the leica branding, calling the camera function a tri-elmar, instead of the lie that a zoom exists anywhere within this device.
heres some copy they might have used ...
" leica and oppo have done the impossible in a cellphone ... mining the legacy of the classic tri elmar lenses , the camera uses three distinct primes offering prime quality with seamless 10 x function offering all the benefits of a zoom in a solid state camera , integrated with seamless precision, "...bla bla bla
So just to be correct, this oppo phone has the same 5x optical zoom and it does not have a 10x optical zoom but just a 10x clear zoom as the P30 Pro has on both phones, so both the Oppo and Haewei only have a 5x optical zoom and I know that both have folded optics.
As far as "folded optics", I have two Dimage, and later I bought Kodak V705 which is twin cam, one of them is zoom.
Until today, all the waterproof ZOOM cameras are all "folded optics".
As far as higher ISO IQ goes, all CCD sensor are not too good. LX7 with CMOS sensor is my first P&S which I can get decent results in low-light back to then.
I like DPR, and it is the only place where you can see the camera sensor test results.
Nothing inherently wrong with folded optics (binoculars and many spotting scopes are folded optics too).
In photography the most common use is where there are strong space limitations (like the thickness of a phone), and those limitations bring t bear a number of design tradeoffs. A folded optic long lens in a phone is almost certain to be a better choice than trying to fit a conventional optic in there.
I'm surprised that it took the smartphone manufacturers so long to adopt the periscope design. Small cameras already used the principle long ago. Perhaps it was too difficult to make it so small?
Apparently not. It's 3 prime lenses. The longest lens (160mm eq.) is 10x the widest (16mm eq.), but there is no continuous optical zooming as we are used to it in camera lens terminology.
This has confused me a lot in the other announcements, especially given there was a periscope cellphone camera that did actually zoom (the Asus Zenfone Zoom).
The 10x claim is also a departure from typical mobile phone terminology, as usually the "standard" camera (typically a 28mm) is compared. For example my triple cam V40 has the tele cam described as 2x. If using the same wording oppo does (comparing ultra-wide to the tele) it'll be a 3.25x.
And you Mike, it seems, either enjoy insulting people with allegations you're pretty sure are wrong but you do it anyway because it feels good or simply always reach for 'has ulterior motives' argument when something happens you disagree with because imagining any other explanation would be too much work.
@noirdesir, for the records, as others indicated that HE had never called multiple fixed FL lens camera phone a zoom in the past until two phones.
As far as "insulting people", here is the example of Washington Post journalist feels insulted by Huawei:
" #Huawei is inviting me on an all-expenses-paid junket to China? That's gonna be a hard pass. Any American journalist who takes Huawei money should be ashamed and shamed."
a) It is one thing to criticise all-paid press events (for influencing the general tone of press coverage both subconsciously and consciously) and another thing to imply direct orders to journalists. b) If you think companies (and journalists) using specific words to bamboozle the public into thinking something that isn't actually the case (ie, presence of an actual optical zoom) is bad form, then so is implying direct personal financial gain when the underlying offence is being paid in kind in the form of a paid press event. c) Would the public really want that not a single journalist ever goes to a press briefing and that nobody reports on it? We know that press releases put a spin on things, we know that press events are designed to impress the journalist. But we still want to read about what was announced/presented. So somebody has to go there and has to summarise the information presented.
@noirdesir Of course journalists should attend and report on relevant press events - that's their job. And there will of course be an element of hospitality and expenses paid. How will we know if these elements have overtaken the purpose of the journalist's visit and become in themselves the true motivation? We can't. All we can judge is the quality of the journalist's report. If it fails to shine an uncompromising light on the marketing hyperbole, if it connives in marketing the half truths and wishful thinking of the manufacturer, then we can only conclude that journalist was unequal to the task. Anything more is speculation, but people will.
Hmm, a prism? Phones it seems, are starting to head more towards DSLRs than ML. I wonder if this thing needs calibration while being built? ML were said to be a more simple design than DSLRs, with less parts ect.
This phone looks to be increasing it's complication, having to use all kinds of trickery just to keep a smaller form factor. And if we are honest, 6.4" of screen kind of prevents it from being small. A laptop is "thin" too, but it's not more portable than my EM1.
Maybe the people complaining about focal lengths being quoted in FF equivalents will be happier if we start to express them as (standard wide-angle) multiples instead (ie, 5x for this phone).
It's always nice when so many people take sarcasm literally. It means you have really hit a nerve by talking about something that so many are either so wound up about or use so unreflectively that they don't realise when they are taken for a ride.
I’m not sure whether a longer focal length wouldn’t just make the module longer but also thicker (or require a smaller sensor while keeping the same thickness). The f-stop already isn’t great (f/3.4), not only in regard to low light performance but also diffraction. And the 8 MP resolution of its sensor might already indicate that it is smaller than that of most smartphone cameras.
Oppo has built a reputation for fast and lite (OS-wise) quality phones at discount price points. Could they match this reputation now in the IQ/camera domain?
I have a gut feeling, however that for optics this small, electronic processing between 2 or more fixed FL lenses is possibly a more reliable system. The components of such a zoom are so small and spacing so critical, that mechanical failures might be the bigger risk. (even with conventional systems, my wife had a Galaxy note that frequently would jam attempting to focus)
Couple of my personal complaints:
At one time, 50mm EFL was a 'normal' lens. Now for some crazy reason it's a 'telephoto'. One of the most annoying things about many phone cameras is the lens being so wide that you need to be right up close to things to get a decent size image. I don't like shooting wide angle.
Technically (at least in the sense of the original meaning when I started taking photos over 50 years ago) most of these are actually long focus lenses. Telephoto lenses have an optical center in front of the first element.
"smartphones have had a huge impact on the imaging world.....also on a terminology level."
Let's not kid ourselves, smartphone technology was coined by the manufacturers to make an inferior product look better. No way the established photography industry is going to use those inflated terms. Maybe it's time for the smartphone world to come down to earth.
ROTFL. I had seen such above comment made by daydream gurus so many time in the past. Whether it's ugly CD vs established vinyl or the 'low quality digital image' vs established film.
One fact remain. While their statements still remain, they went down to the earth, just six feet under the surface.
Leica does not make these lenses, they are contracted out (this according to Leica). It is claimed that Leica was involved in the design, which I assume is true, but these are nonetheless (good quality) mass produced lenses, not the hand built pieces in Leica cameras.
Which is to say that other optics houses could also have very good designs (by phone standards) being produced as well.
That is why I said "Leica-branded" instead of "Leica-made".
To allow Huawei and other makers to put the Leica name on their smartphones, Leica has to certify that those designs and lens performance meet Leica's stringent standards. Leica is not simply selling its name. Carl Zeiss also does the same. These are the only two lens makers of significance that can garner consumer awareness for quality.
I have a three-year-old Huawei Mate 9 and I can tell you that photos taken with that camera are of a much higher quality than ordinary smartphones. The difference is dramatic. Try one in a store and you'll see what I mean.
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