Samsung Begins Mass-Production of 5x Optical Zoom Cameras
By Aakash Jhaveri 8 months
Samsung flagships have historically set the tone for following Android devices, but in recent years, competition has caught up and even overtaken them in some aspects. The cameras on the Galaxy S-series of flagships were second to none a few years ago but that title has been ceded. Their approach to photography just wasn't interesting or innovative enough. Well, that is about to change very soon!
SEE ALSO: Huawei P30 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10+ And Google Pixel 3XL: 15 Test Shots To Determine The Best Smartphone Camera
Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the division that manufactures hardware components like these has confirmed that they are now mass-producing 5x optical zoom camera modules. Samsung's acquisition of Israeli camera technology company Corephotonics should have helped design this new module which is just 5mm thick. For reference, conventional 2x optical zoom arrays top off at 6mm, so this is truly remarkable. They've achieved this by using a periscopic optical arrangement where the set of lenses are aligned against the back of the phone instead of being in a line. A straight arrangement would have made the phone a lot thicker.
The Huawei P30 Pro which also has optical zoom capabilities makes use of a similar, folded optics mechanism.
The moon, shot on the Huawei P30 Pro at 50x zoom
Samsung's current best implementations offer a maximum of 2x optical zoom, so it's easy to understand why this development is so exciting. So when can we expect to see this in a Samsung phone?
In the past, major breakthroughs by Samsung have debuted on their A-series of smartphones. Elements like the punch-hole Infinity-O display, in-display fingerprint scanners, triple and quad-camera setups and large batteries have all been tested on these low-risk offerings before being featured prime-time on the S or the Note-series of flagships.
Camera samples from this new 5x optical zoom sensor
The Samsung Galaxy Note10 is probably already finalised, and so is the Galaxy Fold reincarnation. Some high-end A-series phone in the last quarter of 2019 would be our guess on when we see Samsung get onboard the 5x optical zoom bandwagon.
This is also a testament that folded optics/periscopic camera modules are here to stay as they allow manufacturers to transcend the earlier constraints that were inherent because of their physical size.
TOPICS: Tech, Photography, Cameras, Camera Phone, Samsung Galaxy Fold, Genesis by Mashable India, Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung, Huawei P30 Pro, smartphone photography, Moon, Samsung Galaxy Note10
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