Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
After the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Apple’s smartphone presence just grew and grew, ultimately becoming the top dog in the market. But last year, Samsung knocked Apple from their throne to become the world’s most popular smartphone brand.
This year, findings published by IHS Markit shows that Apple has now also been overtaken by Huawei and Oppo, dropping Apple down into 4th place.
We saw a teaser earlier this month from both OPPO and Xiaomi highlighting their under-screen camera technology that was coming to their next generation of smartphones. This tech allows the camera to be placed directly underneath the screen, getting rid of the notch while maximising the size of the display.
Now, it looks like OPPO has beaten Xiaomi to the punch by officially announcing the tech and showing off a working device at MWC Shanghai 2019.
Ok, so that title might’ve been a pun at the expense of Samsung, but OPPO has jumped onto the foldable phone bandwagon, a newly published patent shows. The patent was filed in October 2018, but has only now been published and includes several design sketches as well as full colour renders of what a foldable OPPO might look like.
The notch seemed like a great idea at the time. It allowed phone manufacturers to get back a little bit more screen space while still having a front camera. But then the notch became kind of annoying, and manufacturers have been doing what they can to eliminate it. ASUS turned theirs into a flip-out camera, and Oppo has already experimented with popup cameras.
Now, though, Oppo is showing off a new front camera that sits under the LCD itself. Xiaomi, too, has also been recently showing off a prototype smartphone with similar technology, too.
OPPO has announced that they’ve gone into mass production on their new 10x zoom camera module for smartphones and will release a phone utilising it in the second quarter of 2019. It’s a three-camera system which OPPO says is “built to work in perfect harmony” and allows them to offer an equivalent focal length range of 16-160mm – hence, 10x zoom.
It seems that the Israeli smartphone camera tech company Corephotonics is being snapped up by electronics giant, Samsung, according to GSMArena. It’s a deal estimated to be worth around $150,000,000 and should see Samsung acquiring some pretty cool smartphone camera tech.
Corephotonics has been working to overcome the shortcomings of tiny sensors placed inside phones. Issues like noise levels, low light performance, zoom, and optical stabilisation. Corephotonics developed the 5x lossless zoom camera module found in the OPPO smartphone. Now they have 10x and new triple camera 25x zoom modules.
It kinda looks like a phone from a decade ago, except it runs a modern Android operating system with a bezel-less design. And that design does look quite sleek. But what makes me immediately think of flip phones and slide out keyboards is that it has these strange popup cameras. That phone is the Oppo Find X.
You might not have heard of Oppo before, but they’re owned by the same company behind the OnePlus You probably have heard of those guys. Oppo is a big smartphone brand in China, and the Oppo Find X is their new flagship phone. A first for Oppo, though, this phone will be launched globally.
Yesterday, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo announced it has developed a SmartSensor, a smartphone sensor Oppo claims contains ‘the world’s smallest optical image stabilization technology.’[Read More…]
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!