Since they started loading up smartphones with multiple lenses and packing them with all kinds of tech, companies have been trying to reduce the bump caused by all that hardware while not losing any key features like optical zoom. It seems almost impossible, but it hasn’t stopped them from trying. Now it looks like LG may have succeeded where others have failed.
At CES 2023, LG Innotek is going to unveil their new Optical Telephoto Zoom Camera Module or, if you prefer brevity, “Optical Zoom Camera.” This bumpless micro camera component sports the kind of telephoto lens that is often seen in a DSLR. It can zoom anywhere between 4x and 9x without losing image quality.
Optical zoom is where it’s at these days. For years we put up with digital zoom as the only option for getting a close-up snap of something far away with our phones. This meant our image would drop in quality as soon as you start zooming in. It’s no different than pinch-zooming on an image on your phone. You know the image is going to start to degrade and pixelate, getting worse the more you zoom. So it is with the digital or software zoom.
A few years back smartphones started incorporating fixed optical zoom modules that include a telephoto lens, giving you some improvement on your zoom. Still, we rely on digital zoom for anything the fixed optical zoom can’t handle, like things that are too far, but also things that appear between the lens’s capability.
So for example, if the telephoto lens can zoom between 4x and 9x you’re only getting the optical zoom at 4x and 9x. What about the space in between? Well, that’s been handled by digital zoom. That’s not ideal. The new LG Innotek Optical Zoom Camera picks up the slack, offering optical zoom in those “between spaces.” And best of all, they’ve figured out how to do it with a slim, flat module with no bump.
No word yet on what phone the Optical Zoom Camera might end up in, but you can bet that LG Innotek is in talks to get it fitted into Android phones within the next two years.
“Smartphone cameras will be evolved into the direction of enhancing the performance of optical zoom centrally on the premium smartphones,” CEO of LG Innotek, Jeong Cheol-dong, said in a press release statement. “As the global leading smartphone camera module company, LG Innotek will be one step ahead in introducing innovative products that provide pleasant experience and good impression to the customers, and innovation will be provided continuously for customer value.”
What are you most excited to see at CES 2023? Let us know in the comments below!
