Optical Zoom iPhone in Near Future?

[LouieSamman]

Apple and every mobile company out there know now that camera quality is important with everyone using their phones to taking photos.

More megapixel, bigger lens, better low light situations are granted in the improvement of the cameras from these mobile devices but zooming has been a problem.

Digital zoom, in my case, is never used because of it's reduction of quality.

So this begs the question if we may see an optical zooming camera from the iPhone within 5 years?

 

[Ste Nova]

why? just have a 50mp camera thats 25mp at full zoom, much easier for apple to do it with electronics than physical camera lenses

p.s. if you want quality use a dslr

 

[ChristianVirtual]

What would be the range of focal length given the size of the sensor and the few mm of physical zoom space ? Can't be lots..

Agree with OP: digital zooming is not the same, again given the size of the sensor with 50MP the noise must be huge. Maybe a sensor similar to the Sigma/Foveon can help a bit with its stacked layout of pixels.

Just see this one from HTC (http://www.gizmochina.com/2013/02/22/htc-one-camera-really-using-the-sigma-foveon-x3-technology/)

 

[3rd Rock]

Zoom lens on any cell phone>Means a larger phone. NO WAY

 

[R.Stoychev]

Maybe in iphone 10 someday

 

[Mrbobb]

Already discussed HERE.

 

[Radiating]

why? just have a 50mp camera thats 25mp at full zoom, much easier for apple to do it with electronics than physical camera lenses

p.s. if you want quality use a dslr

Just an FYI I review professional cameras and am well versed in technical theory. The iPhone 5 is LENS limited in resolution, so even if you put a 50 megapixel sensor on it you could not gain any additional quality over the current digital zoom. Phones will be lens limited unless there is a major leap in tech.

As for optical zoom it's not happening. The iphone has a fixed aperture even due to space limitations. Zoom takes up a ton of room especially because you have to change the focal length meaning literally you need a longer lens (in most cases except for certain lens designs, this isn't an exception) so it's unavoidable to increase the size of the camera if you want zoom.

So no there will not be an optical zoom, it's not happening. The best bet is a revolution in lens manufacturing quality and digital zoom as that won't significantly change the thickness but that could be 5-10 years off.

 

[inselstudent]

I'm not sure if this true, but I once read somewhere that you can actually achieve optical zoom even in a very limited space using some sort of fluid which have a stronger effect than lenses.

Can anybody comment on this?

 

[ChristianVirtual]

I'm not sure if this true, but I once read somewhere that you can actually achieve optical zoom even in a very limited space using some sort of fluid which have a stronger effect than lenses.

Can anybody comment on this?

like this one ? http://www.google.com/patents/US7142369

Still very limited space in the phone ... I think I keep my Canon and the lens zoo a bit longer

 

[inselstudent]

like this one ? http://www.google.com/patents/US7142369

Still very limited space in the phone ... I think I keep my Canon and the lens zoo a bit longer

Exactly, Samsung's got a few patents for such lenses too, I think. And of course a conventional lense will probably always be superior to such alternatives, just like desktop workstations will likely never be replaced by handsets, at least for
professional work.

 

[bozzykid]

More megapixel

Companies are finally starting to realize more megapixels is not necessarily a good thing. The added noise and the slower processing times does not make for a good experience. I give HTC credit with finally going to a sensor with less megapixels that produces much better pictures in low light. I hope Apple is working on something similar. 99% of people are not blowing their pictures up to 8x10. What people really want is a sensor that can take quality pictures on almost all conditions.

 

[Mrbobb]

Companies are finally starting to realize more megapixels is not necessarily a good thing.

Yes, but street Joe, he only knows to buy "by the number." 12 mpp Samsung vs 8 mpp iPhone, Samsung must be better!


Yeah, human have flexible focus-able corneas, why limit ourselves to rigid lenses?

 

[bozzykid]

Yes, but street Joe, he only knows to buy "by the number." 12 mpp Samsung vs 8 mpp iPhone, Samsung must be better!

That use to be the case. But now you are seeing companies advertise the features of their phone above the megapixel count. Things like being able to take pictures in low-light is a huge feature. I think the days of phone companies making a big deal out of pixel count are coming to a end.