OPPO announced on Monday that during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 the company provided its audiences with the first exclusive glimpse of the “5x Dual Camera Zoom” technology, the world’s first periscope-style dual-camera technology for smartphones.
According to a press release, Oppo stated that the technology offers 5x lossless zoom capability on a smartphone, an innovation that sets the bar higher when compared to the 2x zoom functions available in the market today.
“OPPO worked for almost a year to develop the revolutionary periscope-styled dual-camera technology. Currently, more than 50 patents have been filed for this technology,” the statement read.
Sky Li, OPPO vice president and managing director of the International Mobile Business, said in the statement, “The ‘5x Dual Camera Zoom’ has opened up yet another realm of possibility in terms of smartphone photography, and is a reflection of our dedication to delivering on what our customers want and need to take beautiful and clear pictures.”
The statement noted that the “5x Dual Camera Zoom” technology was inspired by the idea of a periscope on a submarine. The dual camera utilises wide-angle and telephoto lenses, and the housing for the telephoto lens uses a periscope-style structure. By shifting the angle of the telephoto lens by 90 degrees, the lens will have the space it needs for a deep zoom.
“A periscope-style prism then directs the path of the light entering the camera by 90 degrees, and sends the image through the telephoto lens when the user zooms in on a subject or object,” the statement read.
OPPO added that the technology has completely re-designed the current standards of dual-camera solutions that can only achieve a 2x zoom—a feature that still disappoints many of today’s demanding mobile users. OPPO strived to achieve a 5x zoom capability that will allow users to fully capture landscapes, portraits, and close-ups—all the typical scenarios that are commonly captured with a digital camera.
“Typically, when the zoom factor increases in capturing an image, even the slightest vibrations can have a dramatic effect on the clarity of the image. The other breakthrough of this ‘5x Dual Camera Zoom’ is the Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) solution. Different from other manufacturers who use optical image stabilisation on the wide-angle lens, OPPO took a new approach and applied OIS directly to the telephoto lens,” the statement read.
