I of the iPhone models that'south coming in 2022 or 2023 volition feature a "periscope" lens, according to information shared in March 2020 past Apple tree analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who often provides accurate insight into Apple's plans.

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2022 is a nonetheless months away, but periscope lens applied science is already congenital into some smartphones on the marketplace, giving the states an idea of what we tin expect from the ‌iPhone‌ feature when it launches. A periscope lens offers optical zoom capabilities non otherwise possible in a smartphone photographic camera, allowing for 5x or fifty-fifty 10x optical zoom.

First and foremost, Kuo has very little to say about Apple'due south plans for a periscope lens, with the information limited to one sentence: "The new 2H22 ‌iPhone‌ will feature a periscope." Due to the lack of data, we accept no idea at this fourth dimension what Apple'south periscope lens might be capable of, bated from an increase in optical zoom capabilities. Other sources take confirmed that Apple is working on periscope lens technology, simply no physical details take emerged.

The maximum zoom range for ‌iPhone‌ models at the current time is 2.5x, just that's set to alter when periscope lens technology comes out.

How a Periscope Lens Works

It's not clear how Apple plans to implement a periscope lens, only in general, the engineering uses a prism or mirror to refract light onto the lens sensor for magnification purposes, with the mechanics of the lens congenital into the within of the smartphone instead of the exterior similar a traditional zoom lens for a DSLR.

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Periscope lens technology has advanced plenty that in smartphones, the lenses are meaty and small enough to fit into a normal lens enclosure and don't even accept up too much internal space. Depending on the build of the phone and internal infinite bachelor, a periscope lens could theoretically exist quite long, allowing for impressive levels of optical zoom.

Some other expect inside the Huawei P30 Pro and its periscope lens


Optical vs. Digital Zoom

The ‌iPhone‌'southward telephoto lens is limited to 2.5x optical zoom, simply digital zoom is available up to 10x. Optical zoom capabilities use the lens to capture a close-up image, so pictures taken with optical zoom remain crisp and clear.

Digital zoom is basically cropping in to an image taken with a wider-angle lens, resulting in blurriness and artifacts that often make the photo undesirable due to the lack of detail.

The iPhone 13 Pro models offer 0.5x zoom (ultra wide-angle lens) and 1x zoom (wide-angle lens) alongside the 2.5x telephoto lens. With a periscope lens, Apple would presumably bump up the telephoto lens capabilities to let it to zoom in further than ii.5x.

The periscope lens would likely be limited to the telephoto camera, as this technology works best in a single lens situation. So you lot'd accept a unmarried camera that can zoom in super far alongside other more standard wide-angle and ultra wide-bending cameras.

Existing Smartphones with Periscope Lenses

Periscope-style lenses for advanced optical zooming capabilities are trending correct now, and several manufacturers have implemented the engineering. Apple tree's main competitor, Samsung, just introduced the Milky way S20 Ultra with hybrid 10x optical zoom capabilities.

Huawei has come out with the P30 Pro, which too offers 5x true optical zoom and 10x hybrid optical zoom, and the company is rumored to exist working on a P40 Pro that has even more advanced true 10x optical zoom capabilities. Oppo too is said to be planning a smartphone with 10x optical zoom.

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Huawei P30 Pro 10x hybrid optical zoom via DxOMark

Samsung calls the zoom functionality in the S20 Ultra "Space Zoom" and it enables up to 100x digital zoom. The periscope lens itself uses a folded 4x telephoto lens combined with a 48-megapixel sensor, which can swap between 4x and 10x zoom. Samsung's zoom feature is technically a hybrid option considering it uses some sensor cropping for the 10x zoom.

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The 100x zoom capability uses digital zooming engineering science that we thought worked quite well up to 30x, simply is non particularly useful at 100x. Apple, like Samsung, could combine digital zoom with optical zoom for a like effect.

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Then far, periscope zoom lenses in smartphones that are truly 10x are bachelor in limited quantities, but the technology is certainly on the verge of expanding and should be even more avant-garde by the time Apple is prepare to build information technology into a smartphone in 2022.

Apple Patents for Periscope Lens Technology

Apple has patented technology related to periscoping smartphone camera lenses, and so this is certainly something the company has experimented with and considered.

applelenspatent
A 2016 patent, for instance, describes a folded telephoto camera lens system that includes multiple lenses with refractive power and a low-cal path folding element in the grade of a mirror.

According to the description included in the patent, light would be channeled into the photographic camera through a primary lens, bounced off of the included mirror in the smartphone, and then would be sent to a secondary lens that moves up and downwardly for the purpose of zooming in.

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