Apple has been known to launch products by taking their sweet time, instead of jumping ahead of the regular crowd. 5G iPhones were launched around a year later in contrast to Android smartphone makers, but, upon release, the devices were able to convey the importance of 5G in a much greater sense than flagships from Samsung, Huawei or Xiaomi.
Optics have always been the company's strong point, with videography being undefeated, owing to the great camera software that couples good sensors on the devices. Be it the iPhone 12 or the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the devices can take on and defeat almost all smartphones in terms of optics, with only Google taking the fight to Apple.
USTPO Listing Reveals Unique Periscope Camera Tech
The United States Patent and Trademark Office or USPTO recently published a patent that demonstrates the Cupertino giant's research and development when it comes to a smartphone periscope camera. As per the publication, Apple had filed the patent in February of 2018, well before the Huawei P30 Pro did the same.
The description and added image show that the company's periscope zoom camera makes use of two prisms, an infrared filter, four or five lenses as well as a camera sensor.
Whilst Huawei's periscope cameras have a similar set-up to the one described above, the difference is in the use of two prisms. The goal behind choosing this is to allow Apple to install the camera sensor in a parallel manner to a smartphone's back panel, rather than at right angles.
Furthermore, the patent adds that the periscope camera has an aperture of f/2.4 and offers 3x optical zoom, but, we can imagine that Apple will have improved on these details in the past three years. In terms of a probable launch, Ming-Chi Kuo, who is a famed Apple analyst expects such iPhones featuring periscope cameras to launch in 2023.
Certain companies like Huawei and Samsung have beaten Apple to the periscope camera, which as a concept are optic instruments that allow users to see around obstacles without visibility. It usually includes mirrors that have prisms that refract the light at certain angles, allowing for the viewing to what is above or below the actual line of sight.
In smartphones, periscopic cameras usually offer 5X or 10X zoom by making use of more than a single lens alongside the main camera sensor. A periscope’s role, in theory, is to aid in the accommodation of the array of lenses without increasing the smartphone’s thickness by major amounts.
