Periscope camera lens - Probably the next big trend in smartphones ~ HARSH TECH TALK

Periscope zoom camera lens in smartphones

are the next big thing

Back in mobile world congress 2019, when Oppo showcased the prototype of the periscope camera lens in their smartphone that can go up to 10× lossless zoom. And it was one of the most innovative technologies in mobile world congress, that a periscope camera lens has been used in a smartphone to provide features like digital cameras in a smartphone.

Periscope camera lens - How it works?

Credit - Webinnate

Now talking about the method of the technique used in there for a periscope camera lens in a smartphone is almost as similar to a normal periscope where mirrors are fitted into each end of the tube at the angle of exactly 45 degrees. light is reflected from the top mirror to bottom mirror at an angle of 45 degrees because the light is always reflected by a mirror at the same angle that it hits the mirror.

Now in smartphones, the same thing happens where external lens captures an image and reflects it inside on a mirror, and another lens transmits the image to the camera's sensor. So, a periscope lens would enable camera in the smartphone to create a sophisticated optical zoom system.

Is it really 10x optical zoom? No!

The Oppo phone showcased at the Mobile World Congress supported up to 10x lossless zoom but technically, what company did was that they placed the main sensor as a 'more' ultra wide lens and the focal length of the camera used in the prototype phone was 16mm instead of a regular lens used on the smartphone so that phone can go from 16-160mm. But when Oppo showcased its 5x optical zoom prototype in Mobile World Congress 2017 it used the regular lens on their smartphone at that time. So, Oppo played it smart. Now, the phone showcased by Oppo at Mobile World Congress 2019 is technically still the 5x optical zoom.

Now talking about the periscope lens used in smartphone cameras, it is definitely the future of smartphone cameras and the upcoming smartphones with periscope lens would be much more sophisticated and powerful. We can assume smartphone cameras to be as much feature packed as digital cameras if not replacing them.