This new camera technology will come to smartphones next year
LG has launched a new zoom camera for smartphones. The camera module can be used to zoom optically and variably from 4 to 9 times. What exactly does this mean?
Variable zoom, optical zoom and focal length?
Last June, Sony announced the Xperia 1 IV, a typical Sony smartphone with some distinctive Sony aspects. However, the device did have a special function. The smartphone had a periscope lens with a variable focal length. In short, what does this mean?
With a telephoto lens on a smartphone you can zoom optically, or zoom without loss of quality. With a ‘regular’ telephoto lens, the camera uses several lenses to enlarge the image. The image processing also ensures that the zoom effect falls well between the focal length of the lens. The focal length is the distance between the sensor and the center of the camera lens. This distance is indicated in millimeters. The greater the distance, the closer you can get an image. The same applies the other way around.
Let’s take the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra as an example. This device has two zoom cameras: a 10 MP telephoto lens and a 10 MP periscope camera. The focal length of these lenses is 69 mm and 230 mm, which equates to 3x and 10x optical zoom. However, you cannot zoom optically in between. The devices have a fixed focal point, so they can only zoom optically at 3x and 10x. For example, at 5x zoom, the camera moves the image crop to get to this 5x zoom, you then get a digital zoom. LG has now managed to solve this last ‘problem’.
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New camera module
LG has introduced a new camera module that can zoom optically and variably. The module has no fixed focal length and the lens can shift. This makes it possible to optically zoom from 4 to 9 times. The South Korean manufacturer also introduced such a camera last year and this was the module that could be found in the Sony Xpera 1 IV. However, with this module you could ‘only’ optically variable zoom 3 to 4.5 times. This has now been expanded to 4 to 9 times. The technology can, among other things, ensure that smartphone manufacturers no longer have to place two telephoto lenses. In the end, it could even make us go back to one or two lenses on a smartphone.
LG’s new module should be introduced at CES early next year and it is expected that we will also see the module in some smartphones from next year.
What do you think of the technique? Let us know in the comments below this article.
