Ever since the introduction of the periscope lens camera by Huawei in 2019 it became standard for every camera centric phone.
Huawei’s camera had a fixed focal length of 125mm(in 35mm equivalent). That’s a problem when you want to have a high zoom range on your photos.
To solve this problem Chinese camera sensor manufacturer O-Film unveiled a new periscope lens that has a continuous zoom. The camera module can zoom between 85mm and 170mm and the lens aperture changes from f/3.1 to f/5.1.The module is only 5.9mm thick.
With the help of a piezoelectric motor, Lens element’s inside the camera move forward and backward to seamlessly zoom in and out.
O-Film’s periscope camera will have 3x to 7x continuous zoom compared to conventional periscope lens cameras which are fixed to a 5x or 10x focal length. The company claims that they can also make lenses with 3-5x, 5-8x and 3.5-9.5x zoom ranges.
Though many people believe that the periscope lens idea is something new, that’s not true. Back in 2002 Sharp launched Sharp 902 that featured a periscope like Lens with 2x optical zoom. Also in January 2016 Asus launched the Asus Zenfone Zoom ZX551ML that featured a periscope lens which also had a 3x continuous optical zoom.
But none of those phones were popular because the quality of the photos wasn’t good. With the advancements in the sensor and periscope lens technology this new camera could provide better photos.
Source Gizmochina
