Apple patent indicates better long-range photography for future iPhones

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While recent iPhones have had great cameras, one area that has been left behind by Android rivals is long-range photography. The lack of a periscope camera holds iPhones back, but it looks like that won’t be a problem for too long.

A patent spotted by Apple obviously describes the company’s possible plans for a periscope system to improve long-range photography. Entitled “Folded Camera”, the patent describes a system which includes “two lightweight folding elements such as prisms and an independent lens system, located between the two prisms, which includes a diaphragm and a stack of lenses”.

While not explicitly stated, the goal appears to be to introduce a complex camera system without adding unnecessary bulk to a camera bump. There’s no point in being among the best camera phones you can buy if it requires a substantial camera body, deeply at odds with the aesthetics of Apple’s iPhone.

“The lens system can be moved along one or more axes independent of the prisms to provide autofocus and / or optical image stabilization for the camera,” the patent continues. “The shapes, materials and arrangements of the refractive lens elements in the lens stack can be selected to capture high resolution, high quality images while providing a rear focal length long enough to accommodate the second prism. “

While it is certainly true that Apple files many patents that are not found in commercially available products, this one seems extremely likely to be applied in one form or another. The iPhone 12 Pro offers 2x optical zoom, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max offers 2.5x – a far cry from that offered by the periscope cameras of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it seems safe to assume that the company will seek to close this gap in the near future.

When is a trickier question though. While it is not impossible that the technology described here could be introduced in the iPhone 14 of 2022, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously said that a periscope lens will not arrive on iPhones until 2023.

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