Most modern smartphones have a digital zoom feature that lets you get a little closer to the subject of your shot… but the results are usually pretty blurry or pixelated if you zoom too far.
Some phones use a second lens with a different focal length to give you the equivalent of a lossless 2X or 3X optical zoom.
But Chinese phone maker Oppo wants to go further. The company says it’ll introduce a smartphone with 10X hybrid zoom capabilities at Mobile World Congress next month.
The company says the phone actually has three cameras including a primary camera, an ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 5X optical zoom camera that uses a periscope-style design that Oppo first showed off two years ago (but which hasn’t been used in any actual phones yet).
Oppo says the camera system should allow users to smoothly adjust the focal length of an image from the equivalent of 15.9mm to 159mm, allowing you to slide from 1X to 10X zoom or anywhere in between.
While the company unveiled the new technology at an event in China today Oppo won’t actually be showing a working product until MWC, so we may have to wait a little while to see whether the camera can actually capture decent-looking pictures.
very interesting, but unfortunately is probably not going to become available. AFAIK, the only current phones with optical zoom are iPhone X and Huawei P20 Pro and I don’t like either of them for other reasons. Wish there was an alternative. (and thank you for distinguishing between digital zoom and true optical zoom)